Things Are Getting Serious, Gov't Strips Golden Dawn MPs of Police Protection

Things are getting serious, on Friday it was announced that the Greek police will no longer provide protection to deputies of the Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avghi) party, while all cases involving the party are expected to now be taken over by the Antiterrorist squad. In an announcement, the Public Order and Citizen Protection Ministry said that it was waiting for a ruling by Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Goutzamani on a letter sent by Minister Nikos Dendias late on Thursday, over the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, a 34-year-old leftist (said to be part of the extreme left party ANTARSYA), by a self-confessed follower of Golden Dawn, on Tuesday night.

In the letter, Dendias listed prosecutable acts by members or followers of Golden Dawn and requested that she take action, while he based the letter on the premise that the party is exhibiting features of a criminal organisation and uses practices of organised crime -with the help of the mainstream media of course-.

Exceptions will be made by personal application by deputies who are scheduled to appear in specific places and there is actual threat to their safety.

In its announcement, the ministry noted that "the assignment of particular police escort to Golden Dawn deputies is institutionally and legally incompatible with the obligations of the Greek Police and the values of protecting the state of law and the parliamentary government it serves."