Karatzaferis rejects ‘far right’ label

Amid talks to form a new nationalist party, Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) leader Giorgos Karatzaferis on Sunday fended off accusations of being a far-right politician.

“They used to call me a [right-wing] extremist because I had taken on [Makis] Voridis, [Adonis] Georgiadis and [Thanos] Plevris],” Karatzaferis told SKAI TV on Sunday.

“Now these have all moved to New Democracy,” he said.

Former ministers Voridis and Georgiadis were ousted from LAOS after voting in favor of the terms of Greece’s loan agreement in 2012, before joining ND.

“When I took on Voridis he was more right wing than [Nikos] Michaloliakos,” Karatzaferis said in reference to the leader of neofascist Golden Dawn.

Efforts to create a new party to the right of the conservatives on the political spectrum could affect New Democracy’s cohesion. The people behind the project – including  former cabinet secretary and close aide of ex-prime minister Antonis Samaras, Panayiotis Baltakos – say they have approached some of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s MPs.

“We have been in contact with former ministers from the Samaras government and with New Democracy MPs who are unhappy about the approach taken by Mitsotakis,” Karatzaferis said last week.

“As much distance separates me from neoliberalism as from communism,” added Karatzaferis in criticism of Mitsotakis’s pro-business values.