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Far Right Greek MP slaps down female rivals on TV, wanted by police (VIDEO)

Published time: June 07, 2012 16:24
Edited time: June 09, 2012 19:59
A picture taken on June 7, 2012 of Antena TV shows Golden Dawn Member of Parliament Ilias Kasidiaris (2ndL) hitting Liana Kanelli, a female MP for the Greek Communist party during a talk show on ANTENA TV station. (AFP Photo/ANTENA/TV out)
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A series of vicious slaps and a glass of water to the face were unleashed on two left-wing female deputies by the spokesman for Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party during a live TV debate. A warrant for the politician’s arrest has been issued.

­Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris flew into a rage during a heated argument with radical left Syriza party member Rena Dourou on a morning TV talk show in Athens.

Kasidiaris was already agitated after Dourou made reference to a criminal case pending against the far-right spokesman. Papadakis appeared in court on Monday for his alleged role in a 2007 armed robbery which saw a postgraduate student viciously stabbed.  His trial was postponed for a week.

Kasidiaris finally snapped after Dourou, 58, animatedly expressed  there was a "crisis of democracy when people who will take the country back 500 years have got into the Greek parliament."

The 31-year-old Kasidiaris bound out of his seat and doused her with a glass of water from across the table, deriding her as a “a circus act.” Communist Party member Liana Kanelli stood up and swatted him with a piece of paper in protest, to which the brawny former Special Forces soldier unloaded on her with a three slap combo.

Talk show host Giorgos Papadakis jumped into the melee, repeatedly shouting “No!” in a failed bid to restrain the enraged right winger deputy. The channel immediately cut to a commercial break. Afterwards a journalist from the TV station said they had tried to keep Kasidiaris from leaving the premises.  Five minutes later when the cameras starting rolling again Kasidiaris had fled the scene.

The Athens prosecutor immediately ordered police to hunt him down.

Golden Dawn refused to apologize for the incident, saying Kanelli had initiated the assault by "hitting him unprovoked in the face with a packet of documents."

"Golden Dawn continues its fight for a strong nationalist movement against everyone, and naturally against the orphans of Marx, who dominate the (television) channels and are playing a dirty propaganda game," the party said in a statement.

"If you want us to condemn our co-fighter for a truly unfortunate moment, you should first condemn the insults and the attack by Liana Kanelli, otherwise you are nothing but sad hypocrites following orders," the statement continued. 

However, the assault of a woman on national TV has united the country’s fractured political scene in condemnation of Kasidiaris’ actions.

"The government condemns in the most categorical way the attack by Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris against Liana Kanelli and Rena Dourou”, interim government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras said. 

“This attack is an attack against every democratic citizen.”

The fascist-leaning and one time fringe Golden Dawn party shocked many by picking up 21 seats in the 300 seat parliament – seven per cent of the vote – in Greek’s inconclusive May 7 parliamentary poll which has left the country without an effective government. 

The Golden Dawn, which sports a swastika like emblem on its party flag, campaigned against immigrants and “the slavery of the bailout agreement.” 

Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos has denied the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz and impugned the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. He also suggested planting anti-personal mines along the countries border with Turkey to keep immigrants out.  Party members have been linked to a string of violent anti-immigrant assaults. 

One Greek Jewish leader ominously warned: “They don’t deny the Holocaust – they desire it.”

The Kasidiaris’ boiling-point battery is almost symbolic of the pressure cooker Greece has become in recent times. 

Europe is waiting in anticipation as a repeat election scheduled for ten days time could determine the future of the eurozone.

Comments (48)

silver7 01.08.2012 20:11

When are the Greeks going to attack a Broke and laughable EU. Making public and pensioners pay for Greedy banks mistakes. And what's his face - papademos who willing ruined Greece and then handed everything over to  technocrat non democratic politicians. And they still stay in the EU JUST to get loans. 

0

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Charalambos (unregistered) 13.06.2012 17:58

Golden Dawn did not enter parliament recently... it`s been there for the past 40 years... now it`s just officially... Peo ple who vote for this party before sometime they were saying that politicians should be hanged... I think by doing what he did actually shows that he will do what he says... because that`s what he said before he even got elected... I know it`s sad and I dont support racism.. but that`s the truth.

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truth_seeker (unregistered) 11.06.2012 15:44

Iranian (unregistered) June 08, 2012, 10:46 At first I was outraged by this man attacking 2 women. Notwithstanding that any country that has a lot of women in politics is on the path to ruins, as women, in general, are incompetent.-------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- -And of course men have done such a good job up until now with the atomic bombs, wars and massacres killing millions. You're unbelievable.

+7

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