10. Theodoros Pangalos, former PASOK minister
While the rest of the world reacted with a mixture of shock and anger to the Snowden revelations over the extent to which the American secret services has been spying on foreign allies including Greece, Theodoros Pangalos, the PASOK ex-foreign minister (and not a man known for his tact and delicacy) had a different response: casual one upmanship over the international scandal.
“And we spied on the American ambassador,” Mr Pangalos said in a glib, off-hand disclosure of state secrets when asked on a radio program about the NSA spying revelations. “It was entertaining,” he added.
Mr Pangalos’s comment was not only widely derided and condemned but also saw court proceedings launched against him for illegal disclosure of classified information.
9. Adonis Georgiadis, minister of Health
Fosphotos / Menelaos Myrillas
While other ministers are usually more than happy to shrug and point the finger of blame at Greece’s lenders (rightly or wrongly) for every unpopular government decision, health minister Adonis Georgiadis appeared to revel in provoking doctors’ ire over health reforms.
“If there are layoffs of doctors in EOPYY (the national health system), please don’t blame the troika,” he said in a press conference in November. “I don’t want [IMF representative Poul] Thomsen taking all the glory. These decisions are mine.”
8. Rachel Makris, MP for the Independent Greeks
Fosphotos / Philippos Messinis
In mid November on international diabetes awareness day the parliament building was lit up with blue lights to mark the event, blue being the colour associated with the disease. Or so the system would have you believe. MP Rachel Makris of the Independent Greeks was not to be fooled seeing the ruse for what it was: a large, intricate and incredibly vague conspiracy.
“They’ve painted the parliament blue,” she tweeted. “What are they plotting this time?”
7. Ilias Panagiotaros, MP & spokesman for Golden Dawn
Displaying the delightful mix of intolerance, nationalism and violent anger that is characteristic of his neo-fascist party, Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros said of plans to build the first Athenian mosque, “A ‘fire and axe’ to the worshippers as Konstantinos Kolokotronis would say.”
Unfortunately, as every Greek schoolchild knows, the legendary Greek independence fighter with whom the ‘fire and axe’ phrase originates was called Theodoros Kolokotronis, an error akin to an American congressman referring to the Gettysburg address given by Brian Lincoln.
6. Iordanis Tzamtzis, MP for New Democracy
Don’t tell New Democracy MP Iordanis Tzamtzis he doesn’t know what poverty means: he, like all MPs has to scrape by on a measly 5,450 euros a month. While that may sound like an incredibly healthy salary to 99% of Greeks, they clearly are unaware of the Dickensian levels of deprivation Greek elected officials face, which is why they can vote for reductions in everyone else’s salary and pensions except their own, which will continue to remain untouched in 2014.
“MPs dry their shit to to make ends meet,” Mr Tzamtzis eloquently explained in mid November when asked about MP salaries. He further added that were MPs’ compensation to drop to 2,000 euros he would give up politics altogether because, he is ‘not rich’. And where would the country be then? Hm?
5. Michalis Liapis, former minister of Transport
Also clearly suffering from austerity is former transport minister Michalis Liapis who was arrested for driving his car with forged license plates and without insurance. Of his decision to turn in his genuine license plates to the tax office and avoid approximately 1,400 euros in road tax on his luxury SUV, Mr Liapis said, “I have also been affected by the crisis.”
He will presumably not be visiting the soup kitchens just yet however as in 2011 he had a declared income of 109,224 as well as a number of properties, with that number being 28. He also saved on transport costs to his hearing by skipping it and jetting off to Asia instead.
4. Antonis Samaras, Prime Minister
The chorus of voices calling Antonis Samaras a malaka (wanker) was joined by… Antonis Samaras. The potent self criticism came as he was being taped gave prepared statements. The first read-through didn’t go quite as planned with Mr Samaras messing up his lines and walking off camera in frustration saying, “Fuck my head, wanker.” The video of the gaffe was then ‘accidentally’ played by a TV station instead of the good take.
3. Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks
Leader of the anti-memorandum party Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos can always be relied on to see the true nefarious intentions of Greece’s European partners. And in February he revealed what was behind government discussions with Francoise Hollande over the exploitation of Greece’s Economic Exclusive Zone: european designs on Greek underground… carbohydrates.
While many others hope that Greece will be able to exploit significant reserves of hydrocarbons, Mr Kammenos had a different take, yelling in parliament, “When Mr Hollande was here you discussed the European EEZ, European mineral wealth and European carbohydrates. They are not European carbohydrates, it is not a European EEZ, it is a Greek EEZ and they are Greek carbohydrates and natural gas!” His party’s MPs applauded in agreement with Mr Kammenos’s bold stance on Greece’s mineral wealth. It’s delicious, delicious mineral wealth.
2. Alexis Tsipras, leader of SYRIZA
In May Alexis Tsipras explained at a gathering in Zagreb what the Memorandum policies are really about and apparently it involves supermodels. “And they tried to implement the doctrine of shock as Naomi Campbell has said,” he stated confusing the fashion icon with the social commentator and author of ‘The Shock Doctrine,’ Naomi Klein.
1. Antonis Samaras, Prime Minister
Take that Starbucks! Think you’re so hot by offering free wifi in your cafes? Well Greece will soon have free wifi throughout the ENTIRE COUNTRY within a year according to a promise made by prime minister Antonis Samaras last month.
“Today I can promise that in Greece we will have free wireless WiFi internet throughout Greece in one year. I have looked into it and that’s why I’m saying it. I can promise it with certainty.”
The bold promise came in a response to a question about how Mr Samaras intends to get young people who have lost faith in politicians to trust them again. The answer, apparently, is by making even more unrealistic promises.
Some of the quotes were taken from a News247.gr story (link in Greek).