The president of the Greek main opposition party New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announced on Thursday with an official letter to the President of the Parliament, Nikos Boutsis, that MP Katerina Papakosta is no longer a member of the New Democracy’s Parliamentary group.

The reason for this was that Katerina Papakosta’s statements yesterday in favor of Panos Kammenos.

On Wednesday afternoon, a few minutes after Panos Kammenos’s conflict with Adonis Georgiadis in the Parliament, Papakosta stepped up and said that “personal references were made to the Defence Minister that are unrelated to the bill”. Indeed, she went one step further by saying that some of the provisions that ND is voting against are moving in the right direction. In order for Mr. Kammenos to return her good words, she invited her to the Minister to take part in an informal committee with the task of drafting an amendment on the pensions of the spouses of members of the Armed Forces that were killed on duty.

But after that ND’s vice-president Adonis Georgiadis clarified that “we have criticized you for this particular issue. The ND chairman has done so. No New Democracy MP will be on your committee. These are provocations of Mr. Kammenos”.