Any self-respecting political party will use the internet to connect with prospective voters. But Panos Kammenos, the leader of the anti-memorandum party Independent Greeks, has taken the use of social media to another level, employing Facebook in a last-minute effort to find candidates to put on his party’s ballot for the European elections.
Time has not been too kind to Mr Kammenos whose right-wing party received 7.5% of the vote in June’s elections. Recent polls show that popular support for the right-wing anti-memorandum party has slipped to 4% in the run up to the European elections in May.
His party was also further plunged into disarray two weeks ago when two of its MPs announced their departure from the party, accusing Mr Kammenos of ‘castrating’ any of his MPs who failed march in lock-step behind him. The could no longer bear what they described as the ‘ignominious debasement of their consciences’.
Of course, Mr Kammenos, who tends to occupy a parallel plane of reality (in the past he has been unable to rule out the possibility that the government is using aircraft to secretly spray mind-control substances on its populace) saw this desertion for what it was: a symbol of strength. “The apostasy… proves how much they [New Democracy] fear us,” he said in a statement.
Now with the deadline for announcing his candidates for European Parliament fast approaching Mr Kammenos has deployed a novel strategy: soliciting CVs from strangers in the hopes that they might make decent politicians.
In a Facebook post, published on his personal page, the former New Democracy MP has requested that potential candidates send him their CV’s in order that they may represent the ‘movement’ in the European parliament. The post which appears to have been written on a keyboard with a jammed Caps Lock key states that the only prerequisite is that individuals agree with the Independent Greeks initial manifesto. That said, preference will be given to candidates with ‘European studies’ – obviously because studying in Europe immediately qualifies anyone to be a Member of the European Parliament. Being unemployed is also a plus, according to the ad, for some reason.
Below is the ad translated in full. In keeping with the spirit and typography of the original, capital letters and poor syntax are used where appropriate:
In a few days we will finalize our list of candidates for the European elections.
We INDEPENDENT GREEKS were born HERE.
Our candidates already include important GREEKS from all sectors and regions of OUR GREECE.
BUT I ASK FROM THIS PAGE FOR CANDIDATES PARTICULARLY THOSE WHO ARE UNEMPLOYED AND HAVE EUROPEAN STUDIES WHO AGREE WITH OUR MANIFESTO WILLING TO TRAVEL THROUGH ALL OF GREECE AND TO BE PROMOTED FAIRLY TO REPRESENT THE MOVEMENT IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT.
THE MOVEMENT WILL COVER ALL OF THEIR EXPENSES
WE ONLY WANT YOUR SPIRIT AND WILLINGNESS.
SEND YOUR RESUMES TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS AND WE WILL BEGIN THE DREAM.
WE ARE MANY
WE ARE INDEPENDENT
WE ARE GREEKS