Panos Kammenos

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Panos Kammenos, leader of the Independent Greeks political party

Panagiotis "Panos" Kammenos is a Greek politician and leader of the Independent Greeks political party.

Kammenos was born in Athens on May 12, 1965. He studied Economics at the University of Lyon, France with graduate studies in Business Management in Switzerland.

He was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament in 1993, under the banner of New Democracy in the B' district of Athens, and has been re-elected ever since.

Kammenos voted against the Lucas Papademos government in November 2011 and, as a consequence, was expelled from the New Democracy parliamentary team. On February 13, 2012 he voted against the austerity measures demanded by the EU in exchange for a loan to keep Greece solvent. As a result, he was expelled from New Democracy altogether.

Eleven days later, on February 24, Kammenos announced the formation of a new political party - the Independent Greeks.

The Independent Greeks took part in the general elections of 2012 and 2015. After the victory of SYRIZA, in January 2015, the Independent Greeks joined its government as a junior partner as Panos Kammenos was appointed Minister for National Defence.

Kammenos pulled his Independent Greeks party out of the coalition with Syriza on January 13, 2019, after a dispute over the name of Former Yugoslav Republic of "Macedonia".