This was never seen before in the Greek parliament. Hardly had speaker Vaggelis Meimarakis invited Nikos Michaloliakos, leader of extreme-right Golden Dawn (Chrysi Avgi) to take the floor, immediately more than 100 MPs stood up. However for very different reasons.
Various Greek MPs abandon Parliament to protest Golden Dawn
Party leaders and 71 MPs from main opposition left-wing SYRIZA and 12 MPs from communist KKE left the Parliament hall in order to show their protest for the extreme-right party having entered the parliament. So did the 17 MPs of Democratic Left, the third partner in Samaras’ coalition government. They left the hall and left party leader Fotis Kouvelis sitting alone…
DEMLEFT leader Fotis Kouvelis -alone as his MPs left the hall
At the same time, the 18 MPs of Golden Dawn stood up to show respect to their leader, while Michaloliakos was walking towards the speakers’ tribune.
Standing Golden Dawn MPs
SYRIZA had said right from the opening of the Parliament after June 17 elections that it would leave the hall eveyrtime somebody from the Golden Dawn would speak.
Video: Parliament speaker – left MPs stand up and leave – GD MPs stand while Michaloliakos walks towards the speakers’ tribune.
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The incident took place on Saturday during the debate about Samaras’ government programme.
I can respect their views and the symbolism of the actions of those MPs that walked out but disapprove of their behaviour. The Golden Dawn party was elected into parliament and the people that voted for them gave them the right to be heard. Conversely the MPs that walked out have a responsibility to their voters to be in parliament and to speak for them. There are other forums available to express their views. The parliament is not a playground, it needs to be respected.
Nope. Fascism is not acceptable to decent people, and anyone who respects their views is either a moron or a fascist. Do you think that they respect your views? No, they will beat you up in the street if you dare to disagree.
The thugs have been trolling the streets of central Athens, demanding to know if bookstores have copies of works by Hitler — not to buy them, as is their legal right, but to threaten the shopkeepers. Equally, it is the legal right of any bookshop to refuse to stock certain books: the owners tell me that they are afraid…
threatening bookstores owners? where do you have it from?
Personal contacts. I know a lot of them 🙂
Nobody who spouts the crap these guys come out with has any right to be heard. The action is a step in the right direction. The real question here is why did the PASOK/ND members stay in the Parliament? Their action speaks volumes and can only be interpreted as a vote of confidence in XA.
The real action that should take place here is that the left and Independent Greeks and Democratic Left should unite and propose a law very similar the the current German law and outright ban support for anything remotely nazist, symbolism, holocaust denial, etc. Given the support there is for the boycot of XA speakers, this should not be too much of a problem.
The attitiude that “XA is an elected party and has the right to be heard” is exactly the same attitutde that got the Nazies were they got, and many people, not in the least Greece, know what that accomplished. they should not ever be given a chance again, no matter what nationality, or what guise they take on.
Spot-on. I agree 100% with this.
So then do you propose that an elected official’s right to speak be taken away? Isn’t that fascism?
Do you have some sort of learning difficulty? They were not stopped from speaking.
the real use of freedom of speech and the right to speak is to know when to shut up….
I understand they all rushed to the cashier to receive their 1000 euro allowance.
you got it wrong lol the 1000 euro allowance was only for not elected parliament employees.
Something I heard (but I cannot be sure it is true) is that all the Chryssi Avgi deputies rushed to take their gun licences when elected. All members of the Lunatic asylum known as the Vouli are entitled to carry guns without restriction — and presumably kill people too.
I think 5 mps asked for gun license
Maybe Germany can make a law that any country with a neo-nazi presence in Parliament will not be allowed to have bailout money? Would this work I wonder?
You err in thinking that the Germans are opposed to Nazi ideas. Their formal outlawing of Nazi ideology and symbols was forced on them by the Allied Powers, just as their Basic Law was written by the victors. Our mistake was in thinking that Germans had lost this way of thinking, merely because they followed our rules for 50 years.
Racists all work together in the racist fortress Europe and that’s why the German and other media who throw like Goebbels shitty propaganda against Greeks don’t take this opportunity when it comes to racist violence. The explosion of it in Greece the last weeks is by quantity more heavy than in Eastern Germoney after GDR joined GER and it gets – except from some isolated incidences – totally ignored by them and most parts of the Greek media too.
Also gets ignored that in the new government are three ex-members of the clerical fascists of LAOS.
Building up 4 Nazi militias didn’t make it into the news, but may be a blood bank only for Greeks with really sweet artworks:
http://www.grreporter.info/en/golden_dawn_collects_blood_only_greeks/7227
there are not ex-members of LAOS in Samaras’ government.
The MPs of the left wing parties have the right to leave the parliament chamber in protest while simultaneously the Golden Dawn general secretary has the right to be heard in the Vouli. The act of protest would had been convincing if it was in response to inflammatory, derogatory or offensive comments made during Michaloliakos’s speech. Unless if he had issued an advance a copy of his speech to all 300 MPs.
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