Former New Democracy star teams up with Syriza - Financial Times

Once a rising star of New Democracy, Panos Kammenos now finds himself at the centre of a new coalition that will govern Greece, while his former party begins a term in opposition.

A French-trained economist and keen helicopter pilot, Mr Kammenos played an active role in promoting Greek foreign policy before becoming deputy merchant marine misister in 2007 with responsibility for relations with the wealthy Greek shipping community.

But Mr Kammenos put himself at odds with the close-knit Athens political elite in 2011 when he tried to uncover alleged corruption by the previous socialist administration led by George Papandreou. He was sharply criticised by the New Democracy leadership.

He was expelled from New Democracy in 2012 for defecting in a vote of confidence on Greece’s €174bn second bailout. Tech-savvy Mr Kammenos moved on and set up Independent Greeks, a new anti-austerity, Greek nationalist political party on Facebook. The new party won 7.5 per cent of the vote and 20 seats in the June 2012 election.

Despite their ideological divide Mr Kammenos and Mr Tsipras worked together against the international bailout while in opposition when they teamed up to vote tactically against proposed government reforms.

Mr Kammenos speaks about Germany in the same disparaging terms as Mr Tsipras, claiming that under the previous centre-right New Democracy government Greece was “governed by email from Berlin”.

When Greece was pushed into a snap election after a failed presidential vote in December, most opinion polls showed Mr Kammenos and his rightwing Independent Greeks party would fall well short of the 3 per cent of the vote threshold for entering parliament.

But the wave of support for the anti-austerity radical left Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras has pulled Anel along in its wake. Now Mr Kammenos and his 12 MPs are preparing to team up with Syriza, which fell two seats short of an overall majority, to form a new government.

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