Kasidiaris-backed Spartiates party makes it into Parliament
The far-right Spartiates (Spartans) party, which has been backed by jailed neo-Nazi Ilias Kasidiaris, looks set to cross the 3% threshold needed to make it into Parliament, with the latest exit polls showing it clinching as much as 5.6% of the vote.
Vassilis Stingas – who founded the party in 2017 after an increasingly right-leaning trajectory that began in Antonis Samaras’ Political Spring, before passing through Giorgos Karatzaferis’ Popular Orthodox Rally and Vassilis Kapernaros’ Radical National Rally – thanked Kasidiaris for his support on Sunday night. Kasidiaris was one of dozens of key members of the now-defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party convicted of being a member of a criminal organization, among other charges. He tried to run in both the May 21 and June 25 elections under different guises, but was blocked by the Supreme Court.
Together with the ultranationalist Greek Solution and Niki, the far-right appears to have topped 12% of the popular vote.
For his part, Greek Solution leader Kyriakos Velopoulos said his party “withstood the dirty war of the system.”
“I pity the pollsters who play with people’s psychology,” he said, while Niki leader Dimitris Natsios said the party will exercise “real opposition in the coming Parliament.”
“With respect to the vote of our fellow citizens, we will march forward fighting for the victory of Hellenism, the upright dignity and the victory of the ordinary people,” he added.
