Independent Greeks (ANEL) leader and Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, whose small anti-bailout right-of-center party forms the junior coalition in the current leftist government, heaped praise on … the government, in an interview over the weekend.

Kammenos, who was kicked out of the conservative mainstay New Democracy party only to form his own political grouping, opined that Greece finally has a government that is negotiating with “dignity”. He made the comments to a private Athens station.

The outspoken and often high-pitched Kammenos explained that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s tough stance is “natural”, considering that EU partners “are no longer talking to either (former conservative ND Prime Minister Antonis) Samaras or (former socialist deputy PM Evangelos) Venizelos.”

He said the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government, complimented by ANEL, will negotiate with the interests of the citizens who voted for them in mind. He also said Greek citizens have suffered from the five years of “mistaken policies” resulting in “70% of unemployment among the young (adults), 300,000 people leaving the country, 80% of businesses closing, a dismantling of the middle class and impoverishment of the Greek people.” He stressed that this situation must end.

In a tour of flood-stricken Evros prefecture, which lies along the Evros (Maritsa) River in the country’s northeast land border with Turkey and Bulgaria, Kammenos even announced that his administration will revive the military engineering and construction corps that built roads and other infrastructure in Greece before the … advent of private contracts and tenders took hold in the country after EU (EEC) accession in 1980.