A bizarre row broke out in Parliament yesterday over who was responsible for recalling to duty a 58-year-old coast guard who had been expelled from the service in 1978 and was suspected of having been a porn movie actor and the leader of a staunch right-wing royalist party.

The clash erupted after four PASOK MPs tabled a question for Merchant Marine Minister Manolis Kefaloyiannis, demanding to know why a person with such a dubious background had been recalled to the coast guard, especially since he had been officially declared quadraplegic in 2001.

Kefaloyiannis denied he had played a part in the man’s rehiring and claimed the officer had been called back into service three times in the past. PASOK MP Yiannis Diamantidis said the man had been awarded the rank of chief petty officer in 2003 on “humanitarian grounds” linked with his pension, but had not been recalled into service at the time.