Greek parliament to vote on controversial Macedonia name deal on Thursday

Greece’s parliament will convene today to vote on a controversial deal that proposes renaming the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia “North Macedonia”.

The issue has contributed to the low but stabilising polling of the leftist Syriza ruling party—already unpopular after years of austerity—ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. Although Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras narrowly survived a confidence vote on January 16, his minority government remains fragile, controlling only 145 of parliament’s 300 seats.

While Mr Tsipras is expected to have the numbers to pass today’s vote, a loss would severely weaken the government, which lost a key coalition partner earlier this month over the issue.

A loss today would increase the likelihood of early elections, although the October polls are likely to be brought forward anyway given the fragile governing numbers of the minority government.

A win today will allow Tsipras to hold onto power for a few more months to pass legislation to ease the past decade’s austerity measures by lifting wages and cutting taxes. Even still, strict post-bailout EU enforcement of growth targets might prevent him from doing this.

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