Former Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has been expelled from the ruling New Democracy party.
Samaras criticised the government for its "too conciliatory relations with Turkey". He called on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to suspend the country's foreign minister, Yorgos Gerapetritis, for "giving in to Turkish demands".
Samaras is a hardline conservative and prime minister from 2012 to 2015.
"Constant appeasement of challenges from the Turkish side is not centrist politics. In this case, those who say that in the name of 'friendship and peace' with Turkey they do not mind 'being called appeasers' should be sent home," Samaras said in an interview with To Vima newspaper.
Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis explained that Samaras "in his last interview expressed his complete disagreement with the entire policy of the current government. Moreover, in an impure and provocative manner, he adopted extreme lies, distorting the statements of the foreign minister, which have been repeatedly and comprehensively clarified".
The statement said that with his comments Samaras had "placed himself" outside the New Democracy party.
"No one has the right to play with the stability of the country in these troubled times," Mithotsatikis' office stressed.
Samaras was also expelled from the party in 1993 when, as foreign minister, he took a hard line in the name dispute with the then Republic of Macedonia.
After triggering the fall of the government of then prime minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis - father of the current prime minister - and forming his own party, he returned to New Democracy in 2004 and in 2009 became party chairman and was elected prime minister after the 2012 parliamentary elections.
Samaras, who does not hold a post in the current government, said his removal was the result of Mitsotakis' "arrogance and apparent lack of composure". | BGNES
