Greek Deputy Transport Minister Resigns Over Offensive Twitter Messages

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (L), Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (C) and Panos Kammenos (R), President of Independent Greeks (ANEL), the right wing party that participates in the coalition government of Alexis Tsipras, attend the swearing-in ceremo

Greek Deputy Transport Minister, Dimitris Kammenos, announced his resignation on Wednesday just hours after he had assumed the position.

Kammenos, who is MP from the junior coalition party Independent Greeks (ANEL), resigned after a scandal over numerous offensive messages on his Twitter account, daily Kathimerini informs.

The leader of ANEL, Panos Kammenos, announced earlier on Wednesday that his namesake will resign in order to allow for an investigation to be carried out.

The resignation came after re-elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reportedly asked the leader of ANEL to determine the authenticity of several racist and homophobic messages appearing on the account of the deputy transport minister.

Dimitris Kammenos issued an apology, but also explained that his Twitter account has been managed by more than fifteen aides and claimed that it might have been hacked.

According to media reports, the Cyber Crime Unit of the police has been asked to investigate whether the account of the resigned deputy minister was indeed hacked.

It seems that the appointment of Kammenos has been a sticking point in the negotiations on the renewal of the coalition between left-wing SYRIZA and the nationalist ANEL.

Following its victory in the early parliamentary elections held on Sunday, SYRIZA renewed its coalition with the Independent Greeks on Monday.

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