Government, parties condemn Golden Dawn spokesman’s TV show attack
The government has condemned a violent attack by Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris on two female parliamentary candidates during a live TV talk show.
An arrest warrant for the neo-Nazi party?s spokesman was issued after he threw a glass of water at SYRIZA?s Rena Dourou and punched Liana Kanelli of the Communist Party (KKE) in the face.
?This attack is an attack against every democratic citizen,? said government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras. ?The least that any democratic citizen could expect is for Mr Kasidiaris?s party, Chrysi Avgi, to condemn these actions unreservedly.?
PASOK, SYRIZA and the Independent Greeks said they would not take part in any TV or radio panel discussions that include Chrysi Avgi candidates.
?This young man proved today that he represents a neo-Nazi group, which apart from being far-right is also cowardly and thuggish,? said PASOK spokesperson Fofi Gennimata. She called on voters who supported Chrysi Avgi on May 6, when the party won almost 7 percent of the vote, to ?think again.?
?The fascist wants to hide but TV won?t let him,? said SYRIZA MP Dimitris Papadimoulis in a message on Twitter, calling for ?total, relentless isolation of the Nazis.?
?The neo-Nazis have been unmasked on TV,? said Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos in a statement, adding that people who voted for ?the Nazi thugs? would have to react.
?What we witnessed is a disgrace to our society and political system,? said New Democracy spokesman Yiannis Michelakis.
Chrysi Avgi gained almost 450,000 votes in the May 6 elections. A GPO opinion poll last week indicated that 60 percent of its support came from Greeks who wanted to express their opposition to the political establishment and less than 30 percent said they supported the party’s extreme views on immigration.
The leader of the nationalist Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS), Giorgos Karatzaferis, whose party failed to enter Parliament on May 6, said Chrysi Avgi was damaging the country’s «patriotic front.»
“It took us 10 years to gain respect and dignity for the patriotic movement,» he said. «We won’t let Mr [Nikos] Michaloliakos’s party and the parliamentary gang of Mr Kasidiaris to ridicule what we have built all these years. It is time for them to leave political life. Fascism will not pass in Greece.”
