Greek parliament votes to ban extreme-right party from elections
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Loading... - Brielle Durand
- 19 Apr 2023
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The move comes ahead of a tight poll race between the ruling New Democracy and opposition Syriza parties.
Greek MPs voted Tuesday to ban the extreme-right Greeks-National Party from running in elections, aiming to block its members linked to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn criminal organization from entering parliament.
The Greeks-National Party was founded two years ago by former lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, who is currently serving a more than 13-year prison sentence over his leading role in Golden Dawn, which was declared a criminal organization in 2020 for charges including murder, racist violence and money laundering. Kasidiaris still managed to gain significant support from messages posted on YouTube while in jail.
The Greek government had originally passed legislation in February banning the Greeks-National Party on the grounds that its leader was convicted of serious offenses and that the party wouldn’t “serve the free functioning of a democratic constitution.” But the party last week appointed a new leader, a retired prosecutor, in an effort to bypass the ban.
The legislation passed by parliament expanded the scope of the ban and was backed by the MPs from the ruling center-right New Democracy party as well as the opposition Socialist Pasok party. The legislation also requests that the Supreme Court hold a full plenary session to consider the ban, rather than a specific section, for example, one that oversees elections.
The move comes ahead of what’s set to be a tight election in May between New Democracy and the main left-wing opposition party, Syriza. Polls predict the Greeks-National Party could win around 4 percent of the vote — just enough to pass the 3 percent threshold to enter parliament — but it’s unclear which other parties could benefit if the extreme-right group is banned.
The number of parties that make it into parliament after the election will also be crucial because it determines how much support from others the winning group needs to form a majority. Read More…
