Former prime minister Antonis Samaras was expelled from the ruling New Democracy (ND) party on Saturday, hours after a portion of his interview with the Sunday edition of “To Vima” was released, and where he demanded the firing of Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis over what he called “appeasement” in the face of Turkish provocations.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis made the expulsion announcement and cited the quotes from the "To Vima" interview, which will be available in its entirety on Sunday, November 17. The spokesman characteristically noted that Samaras had “himself chosen to exit” the party.

The development marks the second time Samaras will have found himself out of ND. He was sacked as the foreign minister in far-off April 1992 by then Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ father, after heated disagreements over the Greek government’s policy on the “Macedonia name issue.”. Samaras resigned from his Parliament seat in October 1992.

In June 1993, Samaras left ND and formed his own party, Political Dawn (Pol.An), before returning to ND in 2004. He was included in the party’s ballot—second in line—for the European Parliament elections that year and served as a MEP until 2007.