[4] On 24 February 2012, through his personal social networking sites, Kammenos announced the establishment of the new party called "Independent Greeks (ANEL)"[5] and published the Declaration.

He advocated for eliminating a large part of Greece's debt, which was equivalent to 175 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

"[10] With 3.7% of votes won in the snap elections,[11] Independent Greeks, the junior coalition partner in Tsipras's last government, entered the parliament.

Kammenos co-founded with his friend, University of Thrace professor Filippos Tsalidis, Athens-based Institute of Geopolitical Studies.

RISI had been part of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Russia′s primary overseas espionage agency, until it was brought under the office of the Russian president in 2009.

[9] He has also called German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble persona non grata because of war reparations that Kammenos demands from Germany.

"[22][23] In December 2014, Kammenos stated on television that Greek Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim religious institutions do not pay taxes (in contrast to the Church of Greece, which was exempted from income taxes beginning in 2004 and whose clergy benefit from state salaries, but also began paying property taxes on its non-monastic, non-worship space properties in 2011[24]) as part of a comment on actions or perceived policies of the Antonis Samaras government with which he disagreed: ...Here we are looking at the Orthodoxy, which Mr. Samaras invokes in his article, the government should make up its mind about the other issues that were against the Church of Greece.

[32] In 2017, Panos Kammenos made a trip to London where he admitted staying in an expensive hotel and using the Greek Embassy's luxury car to go shopping for a Barbie doll for his daughter.

Opposition said that the amount of money he declared in his bank account “no way justifies the expenses that he appears to be constantly making,” but there haven't been any investigations of his behavior or spending.

[34] President of To Potami, Stavros Theodorakis, wondered how Panos Kammenos could afford to go on vacations to the Alps and play at the casino while he officially claims that his bank deposits worth only 8,500 euros.

[38] Also, human rights groups, like Amnesty International, called on Greece to immediately stop the sale and transfer of military equipment to Saudi Arabia as the munitions could end up being used by the Gulf state in its war against neighbouring Yemen, where civilians were also targeted.

[38] Same year, after a Eurogroup meeting and a deal between Greece and EU, the Twitter account of Panos Kammenos tweeted a photo of a tie with Phallus.

[39][40] In September 2018, Greek journalists detained over an article that alleges mishandling of European Union funds meant to improve conditions in migrant hotspots across the country.

The journalists were detained following a complaint by Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, whose ministry is handling the EU funding.

[42] The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, denounced the arrest of the journalists and welcomed that the prosecutor decided not to immediately press charges, a move that led to their release.