Right-wing parties win elections – Greece: Imprisoned right-wing extremist influences election – News




Right-wing parties with electoral success – Greece: Imprisoned right-wing extremist influences election – News – SRF
























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Contents

  • According to media reports, the right-wing extremist Ilias Kasidiaris had a strong influence on the Greek parliamentary elections from prison.
  • In the elections on Sunday, the hitherto almost unknown right-wing extremist party Spartiates (Spartans) made it into parliament as the fifth strongest party with 4.6 percent.
  • The reason for this was an election call by Kasidiaris to his supporters, Greek media reported.

The party leader of the Spartiates, Vassilis Stigas, expressed his thanks on the evening of the election: “The support of Ilias Kasidiaris was the fuel for the election result,” he told journalists.

Kasidiaris had previously failed several times in court with the request to stand as a candidate in the elections himself. He was a member of the leadership of the far-right Golden Dawn party, which was represented in parliament for many years before the entire leadership was convicted of forming a criminal organization and other offenses and has been in prison ever since. Kasidiaris was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2020.

Legend:

Ilias Kasidiaris when he was arrested in 2013.

Keystone/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS

Before the elections, Kasidiaris is said to have announced through his lawyer that he would give his full support to the Spartiates party, wrote the daily Kathimerini. His followers followed this call.

Who is Ilias Kasidiaris?


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A look at his upper arm shows that Ilias Kasidiaris is a right-wing extremist. There he prominently tattooed the swastika. He is also very anti-Semitic. In the Greek parliament, for example, he quoted from the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a book that uses an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. In a TV show, Kasidiaris even slapped a politician.

Ilias Kasidiaris was press spokesman for the neo-fascist and right-wing extremist party Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) and also sat for the party in parliament between 2012 and 2019. He was arrested in 2013 along with other party members, including leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos.

Kasidiaris is currently in detention. However, this does not prevent him from spreading his right-wing extremist ideas. He keeps speaking up from prison, tweets and has his own YouTube channel – even if it was actually forbidden.

The conservative Nea Dimokratia party led by former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis won the elections with 40.6 percent of the votes. She will now be in government alone for another four years. The left-wing party Syriza under Alexis Tsipras came in second with 17.8 percent. The Social Democrats (Pasok) came to 11.9 percent and the communist party KKE to 7.7 percent. The ultra-Orthodox party Niki (3.7 percent) and the left-wing party Plefsi Eleftherias with 3.2 percent also managed to jump over the three percent hurdle.


SRF 4 News, June 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m.;

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