Former Minister Avgenakis Apologizes After Alleged Assault on Airport Employee

Former conservative minister Lefteris Avgenakis apologized on Wednesday after footage emerged of him assaulting an airport worker.

The incident reportedly took place at Athens International Airport on Monday. Footage released Wednesday following a complaint by the airport workers' union shows Avgenakis verbally abusing the employee and then assaulting him at his desk, although there is no audio.

The conflict reportedly erupted after the 51-year-old Iraklio New Democracy MP was denied boarding on a flight to his native Crete after boarding had been completed.

In a statement posted on social media on Wednesday, Avgenakis said he was “sincerely sorry and apologetic for the tension and inconvenience caused recently at the airport with an airline employee as I attempted to board my flight to Heraklion.”

The MP, however, sought to downplay the matter by calling it a “verbal incident”.

“There was indeed an incident of verbal tension with the airline employee, because he did not allow me to board, claiming that boarding had been carried out, while I could see with my own eyes that passengers were still in the boarding bridge,” he said.

“The employee repeatedly refused to give me the opportunity to communicate with his superior or another airline official in a last-ditch effort to successfully travel on time, leading me to try to grab the phone from his hands to speak myself. However, the incident remained at the level of disagreement and verbal tension.”

He expressed surprise “at the exaggerations and inaccuracies circulating in recent media reports about an incident of 'savage beatings', 'fainting' and 'physical assault' on my part.”

Speaking on Skai TV later on Wednesday, Avgenakis described the incident as “bad timing” and said that since he had issued a “public apology” to the employee, there was “no consideration” for him to resign.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis condemned the incident, saying that attitudes such as “do you know who I am?” were not acceptable from the prime minister. House of Representatives Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas demanded an explanation from Avgenakis, who is also a former deputy speaker of parliament.