Kammenos slams coalition, party defectors

“Greece is a country under occupation and Prime Minister [Antonis Samaras] gets his orders from Angela Merkel,” said Panos Kammenos speaking on Skai on Friday morning. “From now on he should be referred to as Chancellor.”

Kammenos argued that the country was not being governed by an elected government and accused the current coalition administration of unconstitutional privatizations.

The Independent Greeks also slammed members of his own party who earlier in the week had announced their departure after voicing strong criticsm of his tactics.

On Thursday, two deputies, Costas Markopoulos and Yiannis Kourakos, announced their departure. These resignations followed the departure of another three top party officials, Christos Zois, Yiannis Manolis and Michalis Yiannakis as well as former MP Dimitris Stamatis.

Certain former Independent Greeks officials have accused Kammenos of submitting a non-paper to Greek President Karolos Papoulias following the May elections in which he allegedly proposed joining a coaltion government as defense minister. Kammenos has denied ever signing such a document. On Thursday, he said that minutes from his one-to-one meeting with Papoulias at the time showed no evidence that such a document existed.

Meanwhile, a Public Issue poll published late on Thursday gave Independent Greeks 9 percent of the vote.

The Independent Greeks leader noted that the notion of left and right was no longer of interest to the electorate, given that the Greek middle classes have now been abolished. He also spoke about the party’s idea of direct democracy and referred to its supporters as “people in the patriotic center.”

“Indepedent Greeks will carry on even if I’m not there, because, above all, they are citizens,” he said.

Source: ekathimerini.com