The leader of the small anti-austerity Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party Panos Kammenos appeared more than confident on Thursday – at his party’s main rally – that his right-of-center party will be in a coalition government on Monday.
Snap elections take place on Sunday.
The outspoken one-time New Democracy deputy promised tough negotiations with the country’s creditors, mentioning German Chancellor Angela Merkel by name, and telling supporters that we “will not accept blackmail”.
Kammenos, despite being on the opposite political spectrum from leftist SYRIZA – the current front-runner in opinion polls – flirted openly with the latter’s leadership over the past two and a half years. He often aligned his party’s opposition to the ND-PASOK coalition government with that of SYRIZA.
Nearly half of 20 deputies elected under his party’s banner in June 2012 elections nevertheless bolted from the Independent Greeks’ ranks – a party described as nationalist and promoting family values.
Speaking to supporters in a closed sports hall in the working-class west Athens district of Egaleo, Kammenos ticked off various promises and commitments, before returning to a favorite theme: conspiracy against the country.
“In 2010 when it became clear that Greece’s sovereignty, Orthodoxy, and the Greek family were under attack, from Parliament’s podium I called on all Greeks to unite as a fist, to unit our hands and souls and resist the new world order and the subjugation of the Greek people.”