Before the elections, Greece blocks a party born of the Golden Dawn neo-Nazis
With the elections in sight, the Greek deputies decided on Wednesday to block a political party founded by a former executive of the neo-Nazi formation Golden Dawn who is serving a heavy prison sentence.
The Greek Parliament adopted in the evening an amendment to the electoral law of 2021 which provides that a political party cannot participate in the elections if its leadership, official or unofficial, has been convicted of belonging to a criminal organization.
Targeted by this reform wanted by the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis: the far-right party “The Hellenes” carried on the baptismal font three years ago by Ilias Kassidiaris, the former spokesperson for Golden Dawn, today today under lock and key.
This former deputy of the neo-Nazi party from 2012 to 2019 had created his own training a few months before his imprisonment in October 2020.
At the end of the trial of 67 leaders and executives of Golden Dawn, this 42-year-old man, violent, negationist and racist, had been sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison for his membership in a “criminal organization”.
Golden Dawn, whose electoral scores at the height of the financial crisis had alarmed the whole of Europe, had been implicated in the 2013 assassination of an anti-racist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas. This crime is now being tried on appeal.
However, four years after their eviction from Parliament, Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants at all costs to avoid the return of neo-Nazis after the general elections scheduled for the spring.
With this amendment, the authorities will prevent Ilias Kassidiaris from placing at the head of his party “a straw man while continuing to lead the party de facto”, explains to AFP the specialist in constitutional law Nikos Alivizatos.
– “Obligation morale” –
Because despite his imprisonment, Ilias Kassidiaris continued his political activities. From his prison cell, he regularly addresses his supporters by voice messages broadcast on his youtube channel which has more than 120,000 subscribers.
According to a survey by the Marc Institute for the Ant1 television channel, the “Les Hellènes” party would win 3.4% of the vote in the next elections, a score above the 3% threshold set to be able to send deputies to the Vouli.
Other polls place this party just below this threshold but in constant progress in recent months.
The Prime Minister insisted on “the moral obligation of democracy to protect itself against its enemies”.
This “cannot legitimize, and certainly not finance, organizations that openly undermine its functioning”, he argued, assuring that it was a “provision similar to that already in force in several European countries.
In Germany, after a long legal imbroglio, the authorities failed to ban the neo-Nazi NPD party, which however never managed to enter the Bundestag.
– Anti-Semitic rants –
In Greece, this reform does not only meet with support. For Nikos Alivizatos, “liberal democracy must tolerate this kind of (fascist) party as it must tolerate left-wing parties and small groups which invoke the dictatorship of the proletariat”.
The radical left Syriza expressed reservations. “I fear that instead of isolating the neo-Nazis, the amendment will give them a major boost,” said former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The name of Kassidiaris is associated with anti-Semitic diatribes, nationalist outrages, anti-system kicks and outbursts of violence.
During a television program in 2012, he slapped a communist deputy and threw his glass of water in the face of a Syriza elected official.
Ilias Kassidiaris displays his sympathies for the Third Reich even on his body: he has had a swastika tattooed on his left arm.
In 2012, in a climate of social distress linked to the financial crisis in Greece, loss of confidence in institutions and discredit of the main political parties, Golden Dawn made a sensational entry into parliament with 18 deputies.
The vast majority of Greeks today seem to want to get it over with. According to Marc’s study, 73.8% of those questioned say they are in favor of banning the party of Ilias Kassidiaris.