The Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Dimitris Kammenos announced his resignation on Wednesday, only a few hours after being appointed, over a series of racist and homophobic tweets.
Mr. Kammenos was asked to resign by the leader of the Independent Greeks and National Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who noted that there can be no blemish on a government that was just sworn in. The National Defense Minister later contacted the Prime Minister to inform him of Mr. D. Kammenos’ resignation.
Prior to the intervention of Mr. P. Kammenos, a number of SYRIZA officers had called for the dismissal of the controversial Deputy Minister over the racist and homophobic remarks he appears to have made on his Twitter account. Mr. Kammenos claims that somebody else was managing his social media account and contacted the Police’s cyber crime unit to investigate.
According to sources from the Independent Greeks, Mr. Kammenos will be replaced by Panagiotis Sgouridis in the ministerial cabinet. Mr. Sgouridis had been appointed Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development in the previous SYRIZA-led coalition government.
