A statement explaining his behavior towards a worker at the airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” was issued on Wednesday morning by the MP and former minister of the Southwest, Lefteris Avgenakis, after the video came to light.

In his statement, Avgenakis after apologizing “for the tension and inconvenience” then claims that “the incident remained at the level of disagreement and verbal tension only”.

The video with Lefteris Avgenakis

ΑΓΡΙΟ ΞΥΛΟ ΑΠΟ ΥΠΟΥΡΓΟ ΣΕ ΥΠΑΛΛΗΛΟ ΤΟΥ ΕΛ. ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ! #ΥΠΟΥΡΓΟΣ #ΑΕΡΟΔΡΟΜΙΟ #ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΟΣΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ pic.twitter.com/i2OC02jZ1c

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“It goes without saying that I accept that there will be a waiver of immunity to take responsibility,” he added shortly afterwards, speaking to MEGA where he insisted that there was no manhandling but asked to get on the phone to speak to someone in charge. At the same time, speaking to SKAI, he said that he was not thinking of resigning from his post.

Asked about the matter before the MP’s statement, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said that explanations were sought, however, he said that “behaviour of the type ‘do you know who I am?’ will not be tolerated”. “I will tell you that time may be given for cases of performance of government work, but behaviors are judged harshly and behaviors of ‘do you know who I am'” are not acceptable,” the government spokesman told ANT1.

After being informed of Avgenakis’ statement, the government spokesman commented “I think we will come back”.

Lefteris Avgenakis was also contacted by the President of the Parliament, Konstantinos Tasoulas, who asked him to explain his anti-parliamentary behaviour.

The statement of Lefteris Avgenakis

I clearly regret and apologise for the tension and inconvenience caused recently at the airport with an airline employee, in my attempt to board my flight to Heraklion.

At the same time, however, I am astonished by the exaggerations and inaccuracies circulated in reports in recent days about an incident of ‘savage beating’, ‘fainting’ and ‘manhandling’ on my part.

There was indeed an incident of verbal tension with a company employee as he did not allow me to board, claiming that boarding had been completed, when, as I could see with my own eyes, the passengers were in the boarding chute.

Finally, he repeatedly refused to allow me to communicate with his supervisor or another airline official as a last-ditch effort to get me to travel on time, which led me to try to take the phone out of his hands to speak to him myself.

However, the incident remained at the level of argument and verbal tension only.