The spokesman for the lesser opposition Kinima Allaghis (KINAL) party on Tuesday directly referred to an appellate court's affirmation of a slander conviction against former defense minister and Independent Greeks' (AN.EL) party founder and leader Panos Kammenos.
The appellate court ruled in favor of plaintiff Andreas A. Papandreou, who charged that Kammenos fabricated allegations by which the former had invested in credit default swaps (CDS) prior to 2010 linked with Greek state bonds.
Kammenos, whose small, right-wing and anti-bailout party served as the junior party coalition partner for leftist SYRIZA between 2015 and 2019, appeared on news programs and made statements to the press in 2011 to allege that Papandreou essentially profited handsomely from Greece's first default.
KINAL spokesman Pavlos Christidis said Kammenos' conviction for the bogus CDS claims "confirm what we already know, namely, that some (politicians) made careers based on vulgarity and slander...First of all, Mr. Kammenos, who as a then deputy of New Demmocracy (ND) party in 2011 invested in baseless lies".
Kammenos was expelled by ND in 2012 only to form his own party, which squeaked into Parliament in the subsequent election.
The social democrat KINAL party has mostly coalesced around once dominant PASOK party, which was founded by Papandreou's father and namesake, three-time prime minister Andreas Papandreou. Kammenos' unsubstantiated claims were made when George Papandreou, Andreas A. Papandreou's older brother, was prime minister.
Christidis added that "along with him (Kammenos), however, SYRIZA also owes an apology, because it remained silent all these years, when its coalition partner vilely slandered PASOK, George Papandreou and his family."
