Kammenos Blasts Creditors’ Attempt at Ongoing Coup against Greek Government

Leader of Greek Independence Party Panos Kammenos (now Greek Foreign Minister) in Washington, D.C., December, 2013, organizing members of the U.S. Congress with an LPAC delegation for a transatlantic Glass-Steagall

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, party leader of the Independent Greeks government coalition partner, issued a statement charging that the agreement forced on Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras constitutes a coup that is still ongoing.

“It is without a doubt obvious to everyone in Europe, that a coup took place in the heart of Europe,” Kammenos charged. “The prime minister [Alexis Tsipras] was blackmailed into agreeing to a document that was different from the one authorized by Parliament and unanimously adopted by the plenary. They are adamant about bringing down the government and replacing it with one that was not elected by the people.”

Therefore, he said, there are parts which his party would not support.

“We are committed to voting for what we had agreed to at the political leaders’ council and only that,” he said. Referring to the measures imposed by Brussels, he said, “We will not allow this game to continue. We will proceed with Alexis Tsipras and the people.”

Commenting on speculation of the formation of a national unity government, he said that this is what those who are counting on austerity want, and the Independent Greeks will not be part of it.

Energy Minister and leader of Syriza’s Left Platform Panagiotis Lafazanis called on the government and Prime Minister Tsipras to reject the preliminary deal.  In a statement posted on his ministry’s website Tuesday, Lafazanis said that the July 13 deal is “unacceptable and unworthy of being credited to a radical party, like Syriza, and a fighting government, which pledged to abolish the memorandums and austerity.” He accused the creditors and the “German establishment” of treating Greece “as though it were their colony” and behaving like “callous extortionists.”

While the agreement might pass Parliament, Lafazanis said, “it will not pass the people, who will effectively annul it. The government and the prime minister himself, even in the final hour, have the right and the opportunity to reposition themselves, and take back the deal before any final and conclusive decisions are taken by Parliament.”

He charged, “The dilemma of creditors: capitulation or destruction is fake and terroristic and has collapsed in the popular consciousness.”

State Minister Alekos Flambouraris also issued a statement charging that the creditors attempted to make a “coup d’état against the Greek government” at the Euro Summit and the “extreme anti-European forces that attempted it do not stop.” He warned the that Greeks “must feel the danger for our country. We must understand the intention of the reactionary forces to humiliate us, to divide the people and to devastate the country. To not deliberately or unintentionally contribute in the success of such plans.”

The population is also beginning to protest with their feet. The public sector union, ADEDY, called for a 24-hour strike of all civil service workers on July 15, when the Parliament is supposed to vote on the agreement. The union members will then hold a demonstration in front of the Parliament in Syntagma Square at 7 p.m.

More rallies are expected on the same day.