The municipal administration of Thessaloniki has decided not to let far-right party Golden Dawn use public spaces to campaign ahead of national elections scheduled on July 7, 2019.
The administration has decided that 70% of spaces where electoral gazebos can be set up – overall 140 locations across the city, which is the second-largest in Greece – will go to all parties that entered parliament in 2015, with the exception of Golden Dawn, and the Independent Greeks and Potami, which are not running in the upcoming election.
The remaining 30% of spaces will go to groups that are not currently in Parliament and to other organizations.
The openly Nazi-inspired organization has halved its support (from 9.4 to 4.88%) in the last European elections compared to previous ones held in 2014.
The party has been rocked by allegations of violence, internal strife and its leaders have been arrested and are currently on trial for the murder of left-wing rapper Pavlos Fyssas (2013, with the subsequent cut in public funding). The party was also affected by a crackdown on extremism by the current government.
Meanwhile part of the votes have gone to ultra-nationalist and pro-Russian party Elliniki Lysi (Greek solution), that garnered 4.18 of the vote in European elections, sending one MP to the European Parliament. [ansamed]
