Golden Dawn ‘not Nazi’ party, leader says
In an interview with Skai television aired late on Wednesday, the leader of the ultra-rightwing Golden Dawn repeatedly denied that his party espouses a Nazi ideology and insisted that he and his lawmakers have been ostracized in Parliament and by the media.
Despite the abundant use of Nazi symbols and references on his party’s website and in its campaigning, Michaloliakos insisted that Golden Dawn is not a Nazi organization but a «nationalist» one. He also refused to admit that his party deploys groups of uniformed storm troopers to raze market stalls run by immigrants despite video evidence of such raids.
Michaloliakos also took issue with Parliament, complaining that the immunity of three Golden Dawn MPs linked to street market raids and other assaults, was granted virtually immediately while similar action has been taken very rarely in the case of lawmakers from other parties.
The Golden Dawn leader also claimed that his party, despite rising in the polls following its election to Parliament in June, has been ostracized by the media at large, but maintained that this would only serve to further boost its ratings due to the growing disillusionment of the public with the media .
