Addressing a pre-election rally on Sunday, and commenting on the "slap" which was broadcasted last Thursday on ANT1 television, Golden Dawn spokesman Elias Kasidiaris said that he was purposely provoked so as to react in an extreme manner. "I, just like many other citizens, am a person that loses his temper when he is being hit from all sides. They purposely wanted to bring me to the point so that they could provoke an extreme reaction by me so that they can terrorize citizens. This is what they wanted. The show did not invite me a day before (this happened), they invited me to speak one week before and called me every single day to confirm that I would be there as if they were anxious that I would not appear." said Kasidiaris.
Seconds after we published the story the state news channel NET broadcasted a news story which showed Kasidiaris at the Prosecutor's office, where he said he will issue a series of lawsuits against some of the protagonists of last Thursday's events.
Last Thursday an Athens prosecutor ordered the arrest of Kassidiaris, after he slapped Greek Communist Party of Greece (KKE) candidate MP Liana Kanelli. The incident occurred live on George Papadakis' morning news show on Antenna television.
The incident occurred following a heated discussion, and an exchange of insults from all sides, Kassidiaris threw a glass of water on SYRIZA cadre Rena Dourou, after she said that the presence of Chryssi Avghi in parliament will turn Greece back 500 years. Kanelli got up and whipped Kassidiaris with some envelops (or newspaper) and he reacted by slapping her, despite attempts by the television host and other panelists who attempted to stop the whole incident.
The case has come under a lot of criticism because of what happened after the cameras stopped rolling, or so they thought.
Veteran journalist and publisher of the newspaper "To Pontiki" George Delatolas who was present at the incident was apparently heard live on television calling an "Eleni" to take action against Kassidiaris. Immediately following the call, Prosecutor Eleni Raikou issued an arrest warrant against the young MP for "aggravated assault". (Indicative is the video below)
Translation - "Eleni... Good morning, I am at the Papadakis show, we have an incident ... "
Realizing that he was on air because Kanelli at that moment was speaking directly into the camera as seen in the video, Delatolas apparently leaves the panel and returns two minutes later and informs the remaining participants that the Prosecutor has issued an arrest for Kasidiaris.
Delatola denied that he directly spoke with the Greek Prosecutor and rather said that he spoke with his secretary (which some blogs claim is not named Eleni). If Delatolas actually did call the Prosecutor directly, then this would raise serious questions about the Greek justice system as well as label Delatolas a weasel.
Meanwhile... Liana Kanelli was caught live on television calling Kasidiari a "poustario" (a dirty rotten homosexual) but after realizing that she too was on air, she apologized for using foul language. Indicative is the video below.
Outside of the studio, security guards apparently isolated Kasidiaris in a room and locked the door, but he was able to kick the door and open it and he then escaped.
Later on in the day and on Tatiana Stefanidou's show on STAR channel, several reporters, and lawyers suddenly became judge and jury over the event and together with Stefanidou gave their own "yellow journalism" verdict. (This is disgusting journalism, and the loathing from all the panelists against anything that is connected to the Golden Dawn party is so apparent you can cut it like a knife.)
The only person on the panel that stood his ground, or better yet stuck by the facts was veteran journalist George Trangas, who blasted the incident -or the slap-, but was objective when he said that the media has indeed come down hard on the Golden Dawn party. Trangas even questioned what Delatolas said when he suddenly called in on the show to intervene. After listening to what he said, Trangas sarcastically termed the whole incident a "CSI affair". Trangas is right... something is not right with this case, and it is MORE THAN OBVIOUS that the Greek media detests this specific political party so how on earth could it treat it fairly to begin with? Another question that needs answering and that is extremely obvious in the video below from Stefanidou's talk show is the suspicious backing and support of anything that is "left" by all the panelists with the exception of Trangas. In fact, they began to actually indirectly attack Trangas for daring to have a difference of opinion and say it like it is -meaning sticking to the facts-... including Nikos Evangelatos' wife and tabloid queen Stefanidou herself.
Provoked or not provoked, one thing is certain the Greek media has not treated the Golden Dawn party on equal terms. It is more than obvious that they loath this party, and were waiting for a reason to strike down hard on them.
Editor's Note - We want to remind readers that Hellasfrappe does not support the Golden Dawn party, and the reason we wanted to note this is because we are being charged of being too friendly towards them. This is ludicrous in our opinion. We are neutral. And rather stick to the facts. We have featured tens of hundreds of articles on this blog about many political parties in Greece and have written truckloads of articles on their positions as well as featured them in our news stories. We want to make it clear to all our readers... we condemn all types of violence -including the slap from this incidence - but we do not only condemn physical abuse we are also against verbal, and psychological violence (from both men and women) and know very well how this can heighten tempers or provoke situations. In the case of Kasidiaris we believe he has to learn to control his temper, become more polished for television viewers -or more diplomatic- and maybe iron out a few negative tones that his party has. Our opinion against the media though... is not negotiable. We know how corrupt they are, we know that they will do anything to raise their television ratings, we know that they publish propaganda and lies in order to sway public opinion and we know that they have as much power -as our politicians do- in order to mold situations.
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