May 31st is World No Tobacco Day (WNTD), intended to encourage a 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe. It was created by the World Health Organization back in 1987.
But today, a photograph that began circulating in Greek Twitterdom yesterday continues to go viral and is now spreading abroad, portraying Greece’s deputy Health Minister Pavlos Polakis firing up a cigarette INSIDE the Ministry of Health headquarters in what appears to be a press conference.

Greece’s alternate Health Minister Pavlos Polakis
Numerous opposition politicians took to Twitter to slam the Syriza minister’s disregard for Greece’s anti-smoking laws which the alternate minister is supposed to be enforcing.
Numerous newspapers and blogs in Greece ridiculed the hypocrisy of a professional surgeon who heads up an important post in government blatantly flaunting a lit cigarette inside a government building— and the Ministry of Health nonetheless.
Γελοίος υπ. υγείας Πολακης φουμάρει σε υπουργείο-ο Κατρούγκαλος λέει ομως οτι μπορουμε χωρίς τσιγάρο #παραιτηθειτε pic.twitter.com/CppZVjYJ3z
— Ανδρέας Ψυχάρης (@APsycharis) May 30, 2016
Ο άνθρωπος αυτός ειναι επιφορτισμένος με την εφαρμογή της Αντικαπνιστικής Νομοθεσίας…σε ποια Χώρα θα στεκόταν; pic.twitter.com/zYhVHn5VdW
— Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης (@AdonisGeorgiadi) May 30, 2016
Ο αναπληρωτής υπουργός Υγείας παραβιάζει το νόμο του υπουργείου Υγείας https://t.co/YMJ1qDmZZt pic.twitter.com/0rMg2h2ROX
— SKAI.gr (@skaigr) May 30, 2016
4 comments
You know you’re Greek when ….
lol
Classic.
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