Jailed far-right ex-MP again denied candidacy

Ilias Kasidiaris, the former MP for the far-right Golden Dawn party, cannot stand as a candidate in the June 25 election, Greece’s Supreme Court has ruled.

Kasidiaris and the party he founded, National Party-Greeks, had been banned from taking part in the previous national election, on May 21, because of a law targeting convicted Golden Dawn ex-MPs.

This time, Kasidiaris tried to circumvent the ban by presenting himself as an independent candidate and his party as a “coalition” of independents called Greeks, with the “National Party” part missing. Kasidiaris was to stand in the Athens A constituency.

But the Supreme Court section ruling on the eligibility of political parties and independent candidates decided this was a ruse and that the “coalition” of individuals was the same old banned party.

Two political parties, conservative New Democracy and the socialist PASOK had submitted briefs to the Supreme Court pointing out the ruse and asked the judges to rule the ineligible again. The left-wing SYRIZA, formerly the main opposition to New Democracy in the 2029-2023 Parliament did not submit a brief; it had refused to join the other two parties in voting the ban.

Kasidiaris, 42, an MP from 2012-19, was sentenced, along with others, in October 2020 to 13 years as one of the leaders of a criminal organization, as Golden Dawn has been determined to be for its numerous, sometimes fatal, attacks against migrants and left-wing activists and other criminal activities.