Kasidiaris says he wants to run for Athens mayor
Jailed former Golden Dawn deputy leader Ilias Kasidiaris announced on Thursday that he intends to run for the mayorship of Athens in October’s municipal elections.
Kasidiaris will run with the political party Free Athenians and aims to make it to the second round and be elected, he said in a statement presented by his lawyer, Vassiliki Pantazi.
“Athens can and must preserve its Greek identity and historical character, not succumb to the onslaught of globalization and the visible risk of replacing its Greek population,” he said. “The Christian faith and tradition of Athens will be preserved intact,” he added in another part of the statement.
Meanwhile, the government is preparing a new amendment to block Kasidiaris from running, as it did in the general elections that took place on May 21 and June 25 this year.
When the Supreme Court banned his participation, he openly backed the far-right Spartiates (Spartans) party, which made it into parliament clinching 4.7% of the vote and 13 seats in the 300-member parliament. Vassilis Stigas, the party’s leader, publicly thanked Kasidiaris for his support.
Kasidiaris, 42, is serving a prison sentence of 13 years and six months for membership in a criminal organization. He is a former leading member of Golden Dawn, a party of neo-Nazi origins linked to multiple violent attacks on migrants and the 2013 murder of musician Pavlos Fyssas.
