Panagiotis "Panos" Kammenos ( el, Παναγιώτης "Πάνος" Καμμένος, ; born 12 May 1965) is a Greek politician and the founder of the right-wing party "

Independent Greeks The Independent Greeks - National Patriotic Alliance ( el, Ανεξάρτητοι Έλληνες (ΑΝΕΛ), ''Anexartitoi Ellines'', ANEL) is a national-conservative political party in Greece. The party was the junior coalition partner to the ...

", which formed the governing coalition of the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

with the Syriza Party after Kammenos met with Prime Minister

Alexis Tsipras Alexis Tsipras ( el, Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition since 2019. He served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019. Tsipras has led the Coalition of th ...

, on 26 January 2015. He was named Greece's Minister of National Defence on 27 January 2015. He served until 20 August 2015, when the Syriza-ANEL coalition resigned, and continued as a lame duck until 28 August, when he was succeeded by the interim Minister,

Ioannis Giangos Air Chief Marshal Ioannis Giangos ( el, Ιωάννης Γιάγκος, born 1951) is a retired Greek Air Force officer and a former Chief of the National Defense General Staff of Greece. He served as an interim Minister for National Defence in th ...

. He again became Minister of National Defence on 23 September 2015 when the Syriza-ANEL coalition was re-created following the election of 20 September 2015.

Early life and career

Kammenos was born in Athens, Greece. He studied economics and psychology at the University of Lyon Business Administration School of Managers. In 1993, he was first elected Member of Parliament in the New Democracy in the Second District of Athens.

Independent Greeks party

On 24 February 2012, through his personal social networking sites, Kammenos announced the establishment of the new party called " Independent Greeks (ANEL)" and published the Declaration. Yiannis Manolis directly expressed its intention to join the new party format. He expressed support for Elena Kountoura, Panagiotis Melas and other MPs. He advocated for eliminating a large part of Greece's debt, which was equivalent to 175 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. Kammenos and the Independent Greeks took a hardline stance against illegal immigration into Greece. The Independent Greeks and Kammenos are

Eurosceptics Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

. He walked the halls of the Greek Parliament wearing a T-shirt that said, "Greece is not for sale."

2015 elections

With 3.7% of votes won in the snap elections, Independent Greeks, the junior coalition partner in Tsipras's last government, entered the parliament. Panos Kammenos formed a government with Tsipras and Syriza. As a minister of Defence, in 2015, he refounded after years the Mixed Groups of Reconstruction Machines (MOMA).

Institute of Geopolitical Studies and lobbying for Russia

Kammenos co-founded with his friend, University of Thrace professor Filippos Tsalidis, Athens-based Institute of Geopolitical Studies. In November 2014, the Institute signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISI). RISI had been part of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Russia′s primary overseas espionage agency, until it was brought under the office of the Russian president in 2009. Since January 2017, RISI has been headed by the ex-chief of the SVR,

Mikhail Fradkov Mikhail Yefimovich Fradkov ( rus, Михаи́л Ефи́мович Фрадко́в, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪˈfʲiməvʲɪtɕ frɐtˈkof; born 1 September 1950) is a Russian politician who served as Prime Minister of Russia from 2004 to 2007. An In ...

. In December 2019, speaking to a conference held by the Institute, Panos Kammenos effectively admitted that he had blackmailed the primate of the

Church of Greece The Church of Greece ( el, Ἐκκλησία τῆς Ἑλλάδος, Ekklēsía tē̂s Helládos, ), part of the wider Greek Orthodox Church, is one of the autocephalous churches which make up the communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Its ...

, Archbishop

Ieronymos II Ieronymos II ( el, Ιερώνυμος B’, ''Ierōnymos II'', ; born 10 March 1938) is the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece and as such the primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece. He was elected on 7 February 2008. Ieronymos ...

, on behalf of Russia by transmitting Russia′s threat to withdraw Russia′s alleged guarantees to Greece to preclude occupation by Turkey of

Greek island Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227. The largest Greek island by a ...

s such as Kastellorizo, Lemnos and others in the Eastern Aegean in the event that the Church of Greece recognised the

Church of Ukraine The history of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the history of Christianity, to the Apostolic Age, with mission trips along the Black Sea and a legend of Saint Andrew even ascending the hills of Kyiv. The first Ch ...

Awards

He has been honored with the Grand Cross of Merit from the Primate of the

Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia ( cs, Pravoslavná církev v Českých zemích a na Slovensku; sk, Pravoslávna cirkev v českých krajinách a na Slovensku) is a self-governing body of the Eastern Orthodox Church that territ ...

, the Medal of Honor Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Order of Knight of the National Order of Merit by the President of France

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

. In 2007, he was appointed Deputy

Minister Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

of Mercantile Marine, Aegean and Island Policy in the government of

Kostas Karamanlis Konstantinos A. Karamanlis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Αλεξάνδρου Καραμανλής; born 14 September 1956), commonly known as Kostas Karamanlis ( el, Κώστας Καραμανλής, ), is a Greek politician who served as the ...

, Minister and politician where the head was

Georgios Voulgarakis Georgios Voulgarakis () (born 4 June 1959 in Heraklion) is a Greek politician and the former Minister for Mercantile Marine, Aegean Sea and Island Policy. Voulgarakis was born in CreteGeorge Papandreou of treason. He said that the Hellenic Postbank, a public banking arm of the Greek government, oddly purchased a $1.3 billion worth of credit default swap (CDS) to insure against a default of the Greek government in spring and summer of 2009 (so indirectly, the government bought protection against its own default), and those CDS was then subsequently sold in December 2009 to a private firm named IJ Partners for $40 million. Naturally, as the Greek debt crisis was getting progressively worse, the CDS in question was probably worth $27 billion in June 2011. In 2013, a Greek court decided that he should pay 30,000 euros for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

against the brother of George Papandreou and in 2014, a court decided that Kammenos accusations were false and slanderous and he should pay 100,000 euros to the IJ PARTNERS. Kammenos has stated that "Europe is governed by German neo-Nazis". He has also called German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble ''

persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...

'' because of war reparations that Kammenos demands from Germany. In 2013, he was investigated by a court for urging supporters to

lynch Lynch may refer to: Places Australia * Lynch Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Lynch Point, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica * Lynch's Crater, Queensland, Australia England * River Lynch, Hertfordshire * The Lynch, an island in the River ...

a local mayor who was supporting gold mining in Skouries. Kammenos said to his supporters "(the mayor) must not be able to walk around. Lynch him." In December 2014, Kammenos stated on television that Greek Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim religious institutions do not pay taxes (in contrast to the

, which was exempted from income taxes beginning in 2004 and whose clergy benefit from state salaries, but also began paying property taxes on its non-monastic, non-worship space properties in 2011) as part of a comment on actions or perceived policies of the Antonis Samaras government with which he disagreed: The remark was condemned by Greece's Jewish community and government officials, who called it "conspiracy theories, lies and slander”. Kammenos has very close links with the inner circle of Russian president Vladimir Putin. In March 2015 Kammenos said that "If they deal a blow to Greece, then they should know Greece will suspend the Dublin II treaty, and migrants will get their ID and documents and will travel to Berlin". He also stated that "If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too” and threatened that Greece would "give to migrants from everywhere the documents they need to travel in the

Schengen area The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and j ...

." In 2016, he posted on twitter a photo holding a dead shark and tweeted “Catching the big sharks one by one,” in reference to the businessmen that the Greek government is supposed to have targeted. The shark was of the

Near-threatened species A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

of Hexanchus griseus, and was protected by the Greek law. The hunting was banned since 1981. Public opinion and WWF condemned his action. The WWF also noted that the Minister's picture is “shameful and shows no bravery,” but a disregard for Greek law. In 2017, Panos Kammenos made a trip to London where he admitted staying in an expensive hotel and using the Greek Embassy's luxury car to go shopping for a Barbie doll for his daughter. Opposition said that the amount of money he declared in his bank account “no way justifies the expenses that he appears to be constantly making,” but there haven't been any investigations of his behavior or spending. Later, he also admitted that he visited and played at the hotel's casino. The New Democracy's vice president

Adonis Georgiadis Spyridon-Adonis Georgiadis ( el, Σπυρίδων-Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης; born 6 November 1972), better known as Adonis Georgiadis, is a Greek right-wing populist politician, telemarketer and publisher. A former member of the Popular O ...

commented that according to the code of conduct of the Ministers the presence of the Minister of Defence at a casino is a criminal offence. President of

To Potami The River ( el, Το Ποτάμι, To Potami, ) was a centrist and social-liberal political party in Greece. The party was founded in February 2014 by Stavros Theodorakis. The party did not run in the 2019 elections and had no seats in the Hel ...

Stavros Theodorakis Stavros Theodorakis ( ; born 1963) is a Greek journalist and politician, who founded and led the social liberal party ''To Potami'' (''The River''). In the January 2015 election he was elected to the Hellenic parliament, with his party receivin ...

, wondered how Panos Kammenos could afford to go on vacations to the Alps and play at the casino while he officially claims that his bank deposits worth only 8,500 euros. The same year his name was also involved in an arm deal scandal. The deal was to sell 66 million euros in missiles and bombs to Saudi Arabia. Opposition accused him that the attempted deal was being done through a shadowy middleman, a broker that was in violation of laws requiring defense contracts to be at the government-to-government level after former defense ministers were caught up in scandals and stealing scores of millions of euros. The Greek Consul in Saudi Arabia said that Saudi authorities were unaware of who the middleman was, and asked for the agreement to become government to government. In addition the middleman was a convicted arms smuggler. Also, human rights groups, like

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

, called on Greece to immediately stop the sale and transfer of military equipment to Saudi Arabia as the munitions could end up being used by the Gulf state in its war against neighbouring Yemen, where civilians were also targeted. Same year, after a Eurogroup meeting and a deal between Greece and EU, the Twitter account of Panos Kammenos tweeted a photo of a tie with

Phallus A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically—or, more precisel ...

. After six minutes the tweet deleted and the minister claimed it was “the kid” who did it. He did not clarify whether it was his son or some hacker. His explanation was not accepted and the opposition, twitter users and media condemned the tweet. People wondered if Kammenos had intentionally uploaded the controversial tie photo in a clumsy but clear attempt to link the agreement with the promise of prime minister

to wear a tie when the country returns to growth. In September 2018, Greek journalists detained over an article that alleges mishandling of European Union funds meant to improve conditions in migrant hotspots across the country. The journalists were detained following a complaint by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, whose ministry is handling the EU funding. The article published alleged some of the recipients of EU funding were businessmen connected to Kammenos. Opposition parties have condemned the detention. The detention of the journalists was condemned by the opposition and by the Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers. The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, denounced the arrest of the journalists and welcomed that the prosecutor decided not to immediately press charges, a move that led to their release. He called on authorities to decriminalize

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) started an investigation over the potential misuse of EU funds. The OLAF spokesperson said that the investigation into “alleged irregularities concerning the provision of EU-funded food for refugees in Greece” was launched following information submitted by the European Commission's directorate general for migration and home affairs in 2017 and “As the investigation is on-going, OLAF cannot issue any further comment at this stage”. Adding that “The fact that OLAF is looking into the matter does not mean that any-one person or entity involved has committed an irregularity or fraud. OLAF fully respects the presumption of innocence.” A source from the Commission said the case involving the Greek Defence ministry was the only known example of irregularities that were sent to OLAF after 2017's annual Directorate-General of Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME). On January 13, 2019, Kammenos and his

party quit Greece's ruling coalition over a deal struck on the Macedonia naming dispute, potentially leaving the governing coalition without a workable majority in parliament.

Personal life

Kammenos is described as "a devout Orthodox Christian." He is the owner of ''Iliatoras of London'', a 60 feet yacht (18m). The yacht was purchased by his father in 1993 using an offshore shell company for tax avoidance purposes.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kammenos, Panos 1965 births Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite Eastern Orthodox Christians from Greece Greek MPs 1993–1996 Greek MPs 1996–2000 Greek MPs 2000–2004 Greek MPs 2004–2007 Greek MPs 2007–2009 Greek MPs 2009–2012 Greek MPs 2012 (May) Greek MPs 2012–2014 Greek MPs 2015 (February–August) Greek nationalists Independent Greeks politicians Living people Ministers of National Defence of Greece New Democracy (Greece) politicians Politicians from Athens University of Lyon alumni Greek MPs 2015–2019