Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis has hit back at left-wing SYRIZA MP Elena Akrita after she criticised Madonna’s visit to Greece, accusing her of “misery-mongering” over a Facebook post in which Akrita wrote that “this country isn’t a Southern plantation, where we bow our heads to pick cotton so as not to spoil someone else’s birthday.”

Georgiadis wrote that it was clearly difficult for “this seriously wealthy lady, who wants for nothing in her life,” to appreciate how valuable Madonna’s visit, and the posts and comments that came with it, had been for Greece and the millions of people whose jobs depend on tourism. The Health Minister said the Queen of Pop had effectively given the country “free advertising” and that jobs would be created in the tourism sector next year as a direct result of her trip.

“Instead of welcoming all this, as any sensible person would, she found yet another reason to grumble, moan and accuse,” Georgiadis concluded. “This is the ‘gang of misery’. Away with the lot of them, once and for all.”

Georgiadis’s full post read:

“How difficult it clearly is for this seriously wealthy lady, who wants for nothing in her life, to understand how valuable Madonna’s visit, and the posts and comments she made, were for our country and for the millions of workers and employers who depend on the tourism industry. In reality, she gave us free advertising worth millions of euros, and next year people here in Greece will find jobs because this famous star came here. Instead of welcoming all this, as any sensible person would, she found yet another reason to grumble, moan and accuse. This is the ‘gang of misery’. Away with the lot of them, once and for all.”

Akrita’s post

The row began on Saturday morning when Akrita, an MP for the opposition SYRIZA party, criticised Madonna’s visit to Greece in a Facebook post that also laid some of the blame at the government’s door.

Akrita was responding to a report claiming that residents of Kouramades, a village in Corfu, had been asked to close their windows to protect Madonna’s privacy from “prying eyes.”

She went on to write: “Close the windows so the tourists aren’t disturbed. Don’t speak, don’t be miserable, don’t complain about land being sold off, about the environment being sacrificed, about your neighbourhood turning into a luxury backdrop. Close the windows, turn off the lights, turn off the moon, close your eyes. And when you open them again, your neighbourhood will no longer be there. Sermons and rhetoric again, you’ll say. Yes. Fewer of them.”

Akrita’s full post read:

“If a report is accurate that residents of Kouramades, in Corfu, were asked to close their windows to protect Madonna’s privacy from ‘prying eyes,’ the question isn’t whether she made that request. The question is whether people obeyed it. Because this country isn’t a Southern plantation, where we bow our heads to pick cotton so as not to spoil someone else’s birthday. And instead of saying a single word, just one, about this shameful, disgraceful episode, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis came close to blowing her kisses instead. Close the windows so the tourists aren’t disturbed. Don’t speak, don’t be miserable, don’t complain about land being sold off, about the environment being sacrificed, about your neighbourhood turning into a luxury backdrop. Close the windows, turn off the lights, turn off the moon, close your eyes. And when you open them again, your neighbourhood will no longer be there. Sermons and rhetoric again, you’ll say. Yes. Fewer of them.”