NEWS

Implosion of Independent Greeks continues with more departures

The right-wing anti-bailout Independent Greeks party continued its slow-motion implosion on Thursday as two of its deputies quit after expressing radical opposition to the line being pursued by party leader Panos Kammenos.

Costas Markopoulos and Yiannis Kourakos announced their departures after voicing strong criticism of Kammenos’s tactics, with the former accusing the party of resorting to “publicity stunts and populist fireworks.”

Kourakos was equally scathing but went a step further, complaining that former conservative minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, who has been implicated in a series of corruption scandals, had been funding the party.

“If people like Giorgos Voulgarakis are in the party, then I have no place there,” he said.

The resignations by Markopoulos and Kourakos followed the departure of another three prominent party officials, Christos Zois, Yiannis Manolis and Michalis Yiannakis and former MP Dimitris Stamatis.

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