Opposition irked by hashtag blunder at state-run news agency
The main opposition SYRIZA party is seeking the resignation of the director of Greece’s state-run news agency following a blunder on its official Twitter feed earlier on Monday.
The party took offence at the mistaken use of the hashtag #SYRIZA_xeftiles (disgraces) instead of plain #SYRIZA, used in reference to a report by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) on a visit to flood-stricken parts of Evia by a team of its officials.
The post was taken down almost immediately and followed by a retraction and apology.
“When Mr [Kyriakos] Mitsotakis decided to put ERT and the Athens [Macedonian] News Agency under the control of the prime minister’s office, we expected them to be turned into hardcore propaganda machines, and we were right… But we never expected them to cross every line of vulgarity, by turning the state news agency into a troll,” SYRIZA said in an announcement on Monday.
ERT is the public television and radio broadcaster.
