Political Unity eyes ambassadorial role for former Greek King

The leader of the new far-right Political Unity party said this week that he could “see the country’s former king in the role of an ambassador for Greece.”

Giorgos Karatzaferis told Star TV on Monday that if he were prime minister he could use ex-king Constantine, 76, as an ambassador because that would “help boost relations with countries with constitutional monarchies.”

Karatzaferis, whose former party LAOS had formed a coalition government with New Democracy and PASOK under Lucas Papademos in 2011, said it would be a “great challenge” to also work with the ex-king’s son, Nicholas. The Greek monarchy was abolished in a 1974 plebiscite.

Referring to Political Unity, which was launched last week, he defined it as “purely right-wing” party built around LAOS as its core and said that it is Euroskeptic.

“With the euro, Greece’s economy will not rise,” he said and, in what was seen as an attempt to court voters of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, he added that he was not a fascist “but I have no taboos.”