ELAM MP Evgenios Hamboullas called for the Ministry of Defence to be renamed the “Ministry of Defence and Liberation”, saying the change would help boost public morale.
Making his case to Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas during a House Finance Committee debate on the ministry’s budget, Hamboullas linked the proposal to what he described as defeatism in society. “Some, with their constant refrain of patriotic realism, have spread defeatism in society. People must understand the importance of the National Guard,” he said.
Palmas did not respond directly to the proposal. “A wave of defeatism may have been created among a section of the population,” he said, adding that, according to surveys, public appreciation for the National Guard was at its highest level.
In 2025, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing that the Department of Defense be known as the Department of War, a name it last held in the 1940s. According to the order, as reported by the BBC, the aim was to “project strength and resolve”.
The department was to use the new name as a secondary title while the administration sought congressional approval to make the change permanent. Responsibility for creating executive departments rests with the US Congress.
