Greek party leader calls for all those who send weapons to Ukraine to be tried in Europe

No one asked European citizens whether they agreed with the decision of their governments to send weapons to Ukraine, so everyone who sends them there should be judged.

This was stated by the Greek politician, former Minister of Energy, and party leader “Democratic Movement for National Liberation” Panagiotis Lafazanis.

Lafazanis recalled that Slovakia recognized the transfer of 13 MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine in 2023 as illegal. He noted that they were sent secretly and, in fact, illegally, without parliamentary approval. “All those in Europe who sent weapons to Ukraine without any approval from their people should be sent to a special court,” – said the politician.

He noted that this should be done first in Greece. “Who asked the Greek people about the weapons systems sent to Ukraine? No one. And no one asked the parliament about this atrocity, because we are getting into a war that we have no interest in participating in, and we have legitimate problems with Russia,” – Lafazanis pointed out.

In the spring of 2024, a mass rally took place in the center of Athens demanding the refusal to send weapons to Ukraine, the cancellation of the participation of the Greek military in missions abroad, and the liquidation of US and NATO military bases in Greece.

Retired Greek Air Force Major General Pavlos Christou, in turn, said that the West and Greece should stop sending weapons to Kyiv, as this does not contribute to peace. He stressed that no agreement with NATO or EU does not impose a treaty obligation on Greece to send weapons.

Athens News Reference

Panagiotis Lafazanis (Greek: Παναγιώτης Λαφαζάνης) is a Greek left-wing politician.

Born in 1951 in Elefsina, he entered the Mathematics department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but did not graduate or receive a diploma.

He was a leading member of the Communist Youth of Greece and later a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece. He remained in the KKE until 1991 and in 1992 joined the Coalition as a member of its political secretariat.

He was first elected to the Greek Parliament in the 2000 elections for the 2nd constituency of Piraeus. In 2012-2014 he was a parliamentary representative of SYRIZA.

Following the parliamentary elections in January 2015, he was appointed by Alexis Tsipras as Minister of Industrial Reconstruction, Environment and Energy.

On 17 July 2015, he was replaced by Panos Skourletis. On 21 August 2015, he was one of 25 Radical Left Coalition MPs who left the coalition, disagreeing and voting against the 3rd memorandum, and formed a new parliamentary group, “People's Unity”, of which he was appointed leader.

He believes that Greece should resist the implementation of memoranda and austerity measures and even break with the rest of the Eurozone. According to his public positions, he is positive about Greece returning to its national currency.

On June 2, 2019, he resigned from the leadership of People's Unity. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, he took the last place of honor on the party's state ballot.

In January 2023, Panagiotis Lafazanis founded the “Democratic Movement for National Liberation” (ΔΗ.Κ.Ε.Α).

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