Greece’s Golden Dawn given European election go-ahead

By Kerin Hope in Athens

©AFP

A protester with a Golden Dawn flag

Greece’s highest court has ruled that the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party can participate in elections to the European parliament on May 25, as allegations that the party operates as a criminal organisation have still to be proved in a court of law.

The decision by the Areos Pagos, the supreme court, is expected to benefit Golden Dawn at the polls by confirming its legitimacy, even if only temporarily, after months of speculation the party would be banned ahead of the European vote.

Two opinion polls published last week indicated Golden Dawn would capture between 8 per cent and 11 per cent of the vote and could win two out of the 21 European parliament seats allocated to Greece.

Golden Dawn’s 42-member list of candidates includes a retired army general who commanded the Greek special forces, lawyers and doctors, and the editor of a far-right weekly newspaper. Fourteen of its candidates are women.
The Areos Pagos did not publish a legal opinion explaining the ruling, but people close to the Greek judiciary said the party’s founding charter dating from 1987 did not conflict with the legal requirements for setting up a Greek political party.
Golden Dawn MPs claim they are nationalists not Nazis, even though recruits to the party until recently had to buy a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and give Nazi salutes at party meetings, while the Horst Wessel song, the Nazi anthem, would be played at the party’s public gatherings.

Nikos Mihaloliakos, the party’s founder and leader, was jailed last October to await trial on charges of operating a criminal gang following the fatal stabbing of an anti-fascist rap performer in a brawl in an Athens suburb. A self-admitted Golden Dawn supporter confessed to the killing, according to the public order ministry.

Twelve of Golden Dawn’s 18 members in the Greek parliament have so far been stripped of their parliamentary immunity from prosecution to answer charges of participating in racist attacks and belonging to a criminal gang. None is expected to go on trial before October, according to lawyers handling the case.

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opular anger at austerity policies imposed by international lenders helped increase support for small, anti-systemic parties at general elections in 2012, making Golden Dawn a mainstream political party for the first time.
The party’s outspoken criticism of the Greek political establishment as ineffectual and corrupt, and its demands for the immediate expulsion of tens of thousands of immigrants working legally in Greece, struck a chord with disaffected voters, despite its members’ reputation for carrying out violent racist attacks.
Ilias Kasidiaris, the party spokesman and acting leader, is running for mayor of Athens in local government elections being held on May 18 and May 25. Support for Golden Dawn is high in depressed areas of the city centre with a large immigrant population, but Mr Kasidiaris is not likely to win enough votes to participate in a run-off vote, according to polls.