Golden Dawn Election Showing Vexes Government

While Greece ‘s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party – whose leaders are under arrest and facing charges of running a criminal gang – didn’t do well enough in municipal elections to contest for regional offices, the extremists stronger-than-expected showing has worried government officials and its critics. Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said that the government would try to press its case that Golden Dawn is a danger, even as prosecutors continue to try build a case it is a criminal gang and should be dismantled. Golden spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris drew just over 16 percent of the vote the Athens Mayor race, where he finished fourth and out of the running,  while his fellow MP Ilias Panagiotaros gained 11 percent in the region of Attica. Although neither qualified for the runoff vote on May 25, Golden Dawn – which had been running at around 7 percent in surveys – did far better in the country’s capital city and adjoining area. In the regional vote, Golden Dawn gained around 450,000 votes – a little more than in the June 2012 national elections where it won 6.97 percent of the vote on the back of a platform that was opposed to austerity measures being imposed by the government on orders of international lenders, but was also anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-capitalist anti-politician and anti-Muslim. Kedikoglou said he couldn’t understand why voters continued to back Golden Dawn after it was facing criminal charges although Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ “success story” of economic recovery hasn’t made a dent in record unemployment and deep poverty, other rallying causes for the extremists. Kasidiaris said he knew why. “Greeks recognized that we have become their voice, the voice of truth, in the corrupt Parliament,” he put it. He predicted a “big victory” for the party in the May 25 European Parliament elections where it still has a chance to win seats in Europe, which fought against Nazis in World War II only to see a resurgence in recent years in supporters of its sentiments. The ruling New Democracy Conservatives of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras are locked in a battle with the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) for second-round local elections as well as the European Parliament. SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has predicted his party, which is opposed to the austerity measures Samaras and his coalition partner the PASOK Socialists imposed on the orders of international lenders, will win big at the EU ballot box and force early national elections.

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