NEWS

Independent Greeks leader walks off TV set in huff

Independent Greek leader Panos Kammenos on Tuesday responded to criticism regarding a recent comment in which he suggested to citizens protesting a gold mine in northern Greece that they should “lynch” the mayor of Aristoteli Municipality who supports the project, by walking out of the studio in which he was being interviewed on Star television.

“You are in no danger of violence from the Independent Greeks,” the head of the anti-bailout, nationalist party said in the interview when asked about the comment he made in regard to Aristoteli Mayor Christos Pachtas.

Kammenos denied that he meant to incite violence with his comment, saying that he meant that Pachtas should be “lynched politically,” not literally.

“I invite the prosecutor to lynch me,” Kammenos said. “I will waive my immunity, but I will also ask that the prosecutor investigates what is going on with the water in Skouries.”

Kammenos was responding to a question regarding a probe that will be launched by a prosecutor into his comments, which came after protesters in Thessaloniki over the weekend told him that they suspect their drinking water to be contaminated with arsenic coming from the gold mine in Skouries, Halkidiki, in northern Greece.

A few moments later he stormed off the set after getting into a verbal altercation with the show’s host.

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