ΑTHENS – Health Minister Thanos Plevris on Tuesday condemned his criminal lawyer father’s Nazi salute in court, where the senior Plevris is defending MEP and convicted member of the former Golden Dawn party Yiannis Lagos.

On Skai TV, the minister said of his father, Constantine Plevris, “My father has never hidden his ideology, (as) democracy allows anyone to hold any ideology he wishes.” However, he stressed, “there were two terrifying missteps, here, which made me shudder: the first is that the salute took place in a courtroom; and the second – forgive me, but this makes me feel very bad, although it’s not my responsibility – is that the salute took place before a mother, Magda Fyssa, whose son was murdered by a neo-Nazi.”

He continued, “In other words, before a woman whose child was murdered, you salute as a person who believes in the ideology that murdered that child. I’m sorry, but this is brutalization (apoktinosi).”