Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis told Parliament that Greece’s new Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government was opposed to the Skouries gold mine complex in Northern Greece, run by Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold Corp.

“We are against the gold investment in Skouries and we will use all possible means legal means to back our position,” he said from Parliament, vowing to “protect” workers at the complex, which he wants to close.

Lafazanis, a former Communist Party cadre in his political youth, leads is the unofficial far left-wing grouping within leftist SYRIZA party, the so-called “Left Platform”, which is staunchly anti-capitalist and anti-free market.

Skouries is a controversial investment in verdant Halkidiki prefecture that often pits one community in the region against another, the quintessential quality-of-environment versus economic boost and jobs dilemma.