Golden Dawn MEP booted out for racist rant
A Golden Dawn MEP was expelled from a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday after a racist rant.
Parliament President Martin Schulz booted Eleftherios Synadinos out of the European Parliament’s debating chamber after he branded Turks “dirty and polluted” and likened them to “wild dogs.”
Describing the comments as a “breach of values,” Shulz asked him to leave the chamber “immediately.”
“We have to establish a procedure here where if red lines are crossed we have to declare them unacceptable, particularly with regard to racism,” Schulz said.
Synadinos was also involved in another racist-laced incident last week when a Parliament meeting on minority rights was disrupted by Golden Dawn MEPs.
Meanwhile in Greek Parliament Wednesday, a senior-ranking Golden Dawn MP described refugees arriving in Greece as nothing short of terrorists and denounced improved ties with Israel, which he described as a “killer state.”
“We have excellent bilateral ties with the Arab world, which are now being tested by the relations we have developed with the killer state of the region, Israel,” Christos Pappas told a special parliamentary session before aiming his fire at refugees.
“These people coming here are of a different religion, race and culture. If you follow the news and the Internet, these are the people that raise their hands up in the air holding decapitated heads.”
But in contrast to what happened in Strasbourg, his comments drew no condemnation from the session’s other participating deputies, nor SYRIZA MP Giorgos Varemenos, who chaired the session or Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Amanatidis, who was also present.
Racist rhetoric has always been part and parcel of the extreme-right party, which swept into Parliament in 2012, riding on a wave of public dismay over the the country’s financial crisis and anger at the political establishment.
