On his morning talk show on RealFm on Wednesday, veteran journalist George Tragas said that Golden Dawn spokesman Elias Kassidiaris was invited to speak on his nightly talk show on Extra Channel on Tuesday night but one minute before going live, the network informed him that the connection fell and a rerun of a previous show was aired.
This infuriated Tragas, and on his talk show the next morning he revealed that he was under heavy pressure in order not to allow the spokesman of Golden Dawn to appear on his show, (in fact Golden Dawn is not featured on any television channel at the moment, its like they have totally disappeared). Tragas also noted, that the pressure were so intolerable that even his staff was intimidated from all the threats that were used to terrorize them. He did not however, give any other details.
If these allegations are true, then this is indeed alarming because in a democratic state it is unthinkable not to allow the spokesman of a nationally elected party to address his supporters. This only occurs in countries such as North Korea, or Cuba, or in dictatorships, not in Greece, but then again Evangelos Venizelos is co-governing this country and anything is possible.
Listen to what Tragas says in his show (watch video)
According to him, Kassidiaris was on his show to discuss the parliament's decision to suspend state funding exclusively to his party and he is right when he says that the members of this party are still innocent until proven guilty.Reporters should not be banned for taking interviews from anyone, that is unconstitutional and undemocratic. What's next? The banning of books? The banning of free thought?
When will our leaders realize that Golden Dawn is Greece's third political force and represents 500,000 Greek citizens. If they want to face-off Golden Dawn why not do it the democratic way? Why is this always ignored in an otherwise "democratic" state.
The whole issue with Tragas, the falsifications in the Greek press about GD and the decision to cut off the funding to the party prompted GD to hold a press conference at a central Athens hotel one day later, or on Wednesday, in order to set the record straight. As such Kassidiaris, as well as MPs Mattheopoulos Artemis, Helen Zaroulia and Polybius Zissimopoulos and the party's legal counselor Mr. Panas revealed the political conspiracy against their party to the press.
The topics covered at the press conference included:
- The background and the persecution of the party: the announcement by members of the New Democracy party
- A briefing on the foreign interests that pressured Greek officials to take action against their party, including the testimony of former Justice Minister Antonis Roupakiotis who is an MP of DIMAR.
- The presentation of the indictment - And falsified documents
- Analytical scope of the witnesses: Who are they, if they are credible or not and what their relationship is with the two ruling parties
- The amendment to abolish funding of the Golden Dawn
The party also announced that it will be holding a public rally on Saturday, October 26, at 18.00 pm at the Larissa Station in Athens, and called on its supporters to participate.
Quite coincidentally, the anti-facist movement, specifically, the Athens and Piraeus coalition of antifascist groups are planning to hold a series of antifascist events at the Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas on the very same day.
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