Athens – Panos Kammenos, a right-wing politician who
said Jews don’t pay taxes, was appointed the defense minister of Greece.
Kammenos, who heads the ultranationalist Independent Greeks, was
appointed to the post in the new government on Tuesday after joining the
coalition of the newly elected far-left Syriza party, which won handily in
Sunday’s national elections.
While the parties are far apart on most issues, they are united by a
common rejection of the harsh terms imposed on Greece in the financial bailout.
Kammenos drew condemnation from Greece’s Jewish community in December
after he said on television that Greek Jews don’t pay taxes — a remark denied
publicly by a government official, who called it “conspiracy theories, lies and
slander” that had become a part of “the dark side of the Internet.”
