The resignation of a newly sworn-in deputy minister in the day-old leftist Tsipras government isn’t the first time a deputy affiliated with the rightist-populist Independent Greeks’ party (AN.EL) has attracted a firestorm of criticism for preposterous and odious posts.

Equally antagonistic Patras-area deputy Nikos Nikolopoulos aimed an anti-gay Tweet at Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel in late August 2014, when he was still an independent and anti-memorandum firebrand.

“From the Europe of nations to the Europe of faggots… Luxembourg PM engaged to his loved one,” was the social media missive aimed at Bettel, who is openly gay. It came after the Luxembourg lawmaker announced his decision to marry in a same-sex ceremony.

This was Bettel’s tongue-in-cheek response:

In an attempt to later deflect responsibility after an outcry, he explained that the offensive Tweet was his “original idea”, but copy-pasted from a blog.

Nikolopoulos, who split from the more mainstream New Democracy party over the first memorandum, followed up with:

“I refuse to accept the gay agenda that some people are trying to impose.” He added his concerns that Greece might permit “pedophilia and bestiality, as happens in Germany and the Netherlands.”

He followed up with this:

TRANSLATION: “After the obscene attacks and sewer of insults, I respond: “From the Europe of European Nations to the to the Europe of the effeminate”… in other words those who cause shame.