Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos generated a firestorm of political controversy on Tuesday with a statement from the island of Syros, where he said, among others, that a recent increase in the VAT rate for the islands is a “criminal act” and “unconstitutional”.
Kammenos, who created and leads the small rightist-populist Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party, made the comment less than 48 hours after voting in favor of the measure.
The VAT hike – from 23 to 24 percent – was part of a bevy of indirect tax increases passed by a slim coalition majority in Parliament on Sunday afternoon. The bill also included the creation of a “superfund” to manage state assets for possible privatization and the controversial automatic spending cut mechanism, dubbed the “cutter”.
“The VAT increase for the islands is a criminal act, an unconstitutional decision; a decision, for which I want to tell you, we waged a big battle in and out of Parliament … unfortunately, I reached the point of resigning as minister over the issue of the islands (and the imposition of the highest VAT rate on them), but we couldn’t win this wager, at least not at this phase.”
His controversial statement earned an immediate response by the main opposition New Democracy (ND) party, which called on Kammenos to promptly resign.
The current minister was long-time cadre with the conservative party before being expelled by ND and creating his own party in February 2012.
