NEWS

Golden Dawn MPs swear at, threaten SYRIZA deputies in parliament

The efforts of far-right Golden Dawn to hold a festival in Kalamata on August 3 and 4 prompted a row in Parliament on Thursday that culminated in MPs from the neo-Nazi party hurling obscenities at SYRIZA lawmakers and making references to Greece’s bloody Civil War.

The incident took place after SYRIZA MP Thanasis Petrakos claimed that Golden Dawn deputies were using the party’s parliamentary office to telephone and intimidate anti-fascist campaigners in Kalamata who want to prevent the August 3 and 4 festival from taking place.

Golden Dawn MP Dimitris Koukoutsis accused SYRIZA of being “hooded murderers” that “burn Athens.” He then made reference to the battles at Mount Vitsi and Mount Grammos in 1949 that led to national forces overcoming Communist resistance and bringing the Civil War to an end.

“At Vitsi and Grammos, we buried you in the sand,” Koukoutsis told SYRIZA MPs. The Golden Dawn deputies then left the debating chamber, walking past the SYRIZA benches and swearing at the leftist lawmakers. They also offered to fight the SYRIZA deputies outside.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou labeled the incident as “unacceptable and condemnable.”

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