A 2011 speech by Greece's current Migration Minister, Thanos Plevris, is circulating again after his appointment to the ...

A 2011 speech by Greece's current Migration Minister, Thanos Plevris, is circulating again after his appointment to the role last year, with many viewers assuming the remarks were made in an official capacity. They were not. Plevris made the statements in April 2011 as an opposition MP for the nationalist LAOS party, 14 years before he became minister. Speaking at an event hosted by the right-wing magazine Patris, Plevris argued that lethal force was a necessary component of border enforcement. "Border security cannot exist without casualties and, to be clear, without deaths," he said in the speech, which was recorded and is now spreading across social media. He also called for living conditions in Greece to be made deliberately harsh enough to discourage arrivals. "When you are here, there will be no social benefits, you will not be able to eat, drink, you will not be able to go to the hospital," he argued. "Hell must look like paradise compared to what they will go through here." His remarks on maritime deterrence stopped short of explicitly calling for boats to be sunk, but he did advocate for lethal enforcement at both land and sea borders. Plevris left the LAOS party and joined the center-right New Democracy party in 2012. He served as Minister of Health from 2021 to 2023 before being appointed Minister of Migration and Asylum in June 2025. The 2011 video has resurfaced each time he has taken on a senior cabinet role, with the context of when and where it was recorded frequently stripped away. The remarks were real. The framing that he made them as a government minister is not. #Greece #Immigration #Plevris