Dimitris Kammenos’ appointment as deputy minister in the new Greek government was doomed from the get go. A member of the right wing “Independent Greeks” (ANEL) junior partner of the new coalition government of Alexis Tsipras, Kammenos resigned less than 12 hours after being appointed— thanks to Twitter.
Kammenos’s appointment fueled outrage on Twitter, where he was known for his racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic rants through his now de-activated account @portaporta.
Via Twitter he has called prime minister Alexis Tsipras a criminal, has castigated Greeks marching in gay pride parades and has shared his anti-Semitic rants— including one on the anniversary of September 11th claiming that of the 2,500 Jews who worked in the Twin Towers, none of them reported to work on the day of the terrorist attack.
He also outraged the internet when he posted a doctored photo of the front gate at the Auschwitz concentration camp which had the words “Menoume Evropi” (We Remain in Europe) superimposed on the gate, comparing Greece’s economic crisis to the death millions of Jews were faced with during World War II.
By the end of the same day of his appointment and swearing in as deputy infrastructure and transport minister, Kammenos was forced to resign his post.
Kaman’s used numerous (well-known and often used) excuses for his Twitter conduct. He claimed that his social media accounts were handled by a team of 15 aides and also that his accounts had been hacked numerous times, claiming in a statement that the majority of the posts were “distortions of the truth.”
Kammenos is a member of the right-wing Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, coalition partners with Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party. The combination of a leftist party and a right wing party, often accused of race