Golden Dawn is leading in the latest public opinion polls, above all other parties, according to zoogla.gr. (At 58 minutes into the video below). This was announced earlier this evening when veteran reporter Makis Triandafyllopoulos interviewed GD press spokesman Elias Kassidiaris on his Internet zoogla.gr channel's "The Unkown M" show. Triandafyllopoulos said that the public opinion poll was gathering results for about a week, and that he was astonished with the results, but he refused to go into more details about this and said that those interested should log onto his site. On his part, Kassidiaris called for the immediate release the party's Secretary General Nikos Michaloliakos as well as two other members Christos Pappas and Mr. Lagos.
Earlier in the day at the Greek parliament, Kassidiaris battled it out with New Democracy parliamentary spokesman Makis Voridis. The GD spokesman criticized Voridis for his past political choices, which he added, have never been scrutinized, yet these same choices were the cause for the jailing of some of the members from his own political party. Specifically, he said that three decades ago Mr. Voridis was photographed standing under a nazi flag, yet this has never been slammed by the Greek press in contrast to Mr. Pappas who was immediately labelled a nazi.
(Video below with opening of Kassidiaris' comments was just uploaded on youtube, when we attempted to view it. it was a bit difficult, but at least his speech is heard. Be patient)
"You call us fascists and offend us, but the chattery parliamentary representative of the New Democracy has yet to respond to our answer why in the past he posed in front of Nazi posters and billboards of (junta leader) Georgios Papadopoulos, and today he speaks about democracy and the New Democracy party," said Kassidiaris.The answer parliamentary from Voridis was immediate.
"I have explained this well over 30 times. Some (parliamentarians) from the Left parties (in parliament) tell me that I have not repented. Now from Golden Dawn I hear that I should explain why I gave a speech while standing in front of a poster of Papadopoulos. The answer is because I was in EPEN, something that is known by all."(The National Political Union, better known as EPEN was a Greek far-right political party. The party was founded on January 30, 1984 by jailed former junta leader Georgios Papadopoulos. It participated (unsuccessfully) in the 1985 general election. In the 1984 elections to the European Parliament, the party polled 2.3% of the vote, giving it one of the 24 seats held by Greece. Wikipedia)
Voridis said that the choices that he made over three decades ago have nothing to do with his political ideology today, and are well-known.
"Acting like 1000 Cardinals they come to criticize me about my views 30 years ago ... They can say (anything they want) from morning until night. For me the this has expired " added Voridis.Following this, Kassidiaris asked to respond to Voridis' statements, but once he began doing so, the head of parliament interrupted him and shut off his microphone. This pushed Kassidiaris over the limit.
(We agree with Voridis, but it seems to us that he is applying a what is good for the goose is always not good for the gander philosophy. Three decades ago he was a young lad, who chose to be photographed under a flag of junta leaders, or Nazi symbols, yet this was never weighed against his character today, and one has to wonder, then why was it used against Mr. Pappas who is now sitting in a jail because of the very same thing.)
(Video below was the continuation of Kassidaris' and Voridis' argument. After the head of parliament prohibited Kassidaris from responding he came back with a few more statements.
Following this, Kassidiaris complained that his mobile phone, as well as those of other members from his party were being tapped into illegally and he then gave a specific example:
"Last Friday my colleagues Koukoutsis, Panayiotaros Boukouras and Kouzilos and myself spoke on our mobile phones and decided to go to the Eleusina Toll Stations to hand out some leaflets. When we arrived, and without having disclosed anything to anyone, three squads of riot police were waiting for us and prohibited us from distributing any political documentation".He then said that a police officer informed him the distribution of brochures was prohibited. Because of this Kassidiaris announced that his party is planning to file a lawsuit against the specific officer as well as the leadership of the Greek police force and the Ministry of Citizen Protection for not respecting his party's democratic rights.
In other news, the Greek Police on Wednesday announced the results of an internal affairs investigation into allegations of links between the force and the ultra-right Golden Dawn, saying that 10 officers were found to be linked “directly or indirectly” to the party but insisting that there were no indications of organized cells operating within the police. Police officials told a press conference that the probe, which started last month, focused on 319 officers of whom 15 were arrested and 10 ultimately linked to Golden Dawn. Most of these 10 officers were guards that had been assigned to GD lawmakers, police officials said. But, according to the report, the probe found no evidence of “organized cells” aligned to Golden Dawn within the force. It did highlight “the inadequate supervision” of officers however.
(Some info on Voridis so you guys can get a better understanding of what hypocrisy is all about: Voridis graduated from Athens College and acquired his degree from the Law School of the University of Athens. He also acquired a Master of Laws with merit from University College London. Voridis specialized in international commercial law, penal law, and the philosophy of law. During his time there, he was a member of the fascist student group "Student Alternative". Voridis has denied any connection with far-right and has described himself as a national liberal. According to a former fellow student at Athens College, writing in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Voridis formed the fascist student group "Free Pupils" that painted the walls with swastikas and saluted each other using the Nazi-era greeting "Heil Hitler." It was further alleged that during school elections, Voridis would violently threaten the Jewish students who opposed his fascist group, as well as their families. Wikipedia)
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