Pomp and grandeur at Kostantopoulou visit to MoD

It is the first time the third in rank official of the Greek State, the President of the House, visited the ministry in order to be informed officially and responsibly on national defense by the competent political and military leadership so to be able to exercise her functions better.

MoD Panos Kammenos stated precisely this collaboration between the House and the MOD, which he is seeking to be as close as possible, and informed Ms Konstantopoulou that the information will be confidential. She also visited the National Defense Center, "... so the President of the House could see how the Armed Forces are working 24/7 and find that morale is high and training excellent. This is necessary at a time when people want to challenge the sovereignty and sometimes national integrity," as he stressed characteristically.

Also Mr. Kammenos proposed on a regular basis – once every two months - a confidential level information of the House Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the MOD on defense issues, a proposal which was accepted by Ms. Konstantopoulou.

On her part, the President of the House spoke of the need for close cooperation between the two sides "in the direction of transparency, and efficiency.” She added: "... given the initiatives undertaken by me as chairman of the House for the establishment of an audit committee on the debt, I think it will be quite useful to contribute to and support the MOD in relation to all those cases of armament programs to be checked and contrasted with the respective debt obligations, undertaken by our country in times in which so imprudently and unreasonably public money was wasted."

But the pomp and overstated glamor of the occassion raised eyebrows and was far from the everyday routine of officers and staff at the MoD. Not only was Ms Kostantopoulou received as a head of state, red carpets, bands and all, but the honor guard and band was forced to wait in the cold for more than two hours, from before she arrived, half an hour late, until she left two hours later.

In the briefing room, chiefs and senior officers from all three branches were forced to attend, and the relevant order of the General Staff required the presence of 10 women from each Branch. What exactly was their role, no one knows. Perhaps they played a decorative role for the ardent feminist House president, like rented flower pots placed by caterers.