ATHENS A minister in the new Greek government has resigned less than 48 hours after being appointed over an outcry about a series of anti-Semitic and homophobic tweets.
Dimitris Kammenos of the Independent Greeks Party had been appointed deputy transport minister following the Sept. 20 election. The Independent Greeks are the junior coalition partner in the government of the far-left Syriza party.
In the Sept. 20 balloting, neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party made slight gains, receiving 6.9% of the vote, giving it 18 seats in the 300-member national parliament. In the January elections, the party had received 6.3% of the vote and 17 seats. Analysts attributed the rise to lower voter turnout.
Among the tweets on Kammenos page, which have since been deleted, were some that referred to a conspiracy theory alleging that Jews did not show up to work at the World Trade Center on the morning of 9/11. Another mocked the Athens pride parade.
Kammenos resigned late Sept. 23, reportedly following pressure from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and released a statement denouncing anti-Semitism and homophobia, claiming his social media pages were hacked.
This is not the first time Kammenos has been in trouble for social media posts, however.
Earlier this year he sparked outrage by posting a picture on Facebook of the Auschwitz death camp gates with the pro-Europe slogan We stay in Europe replacing the sign on the gate, Arbeit Macht Frei.
The post came as Greece was locked in crisis talks with the EU.
Kammenos is not related to party leader and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, who also caused an outcry last year when, during an election campaign, he said Jews dont pay taxes.
A recent ADL poll found that anti-Semitic stereotypes are widespread in Greece and that the country had the highest percentage of anti-Semitic views in Europe.
