Some seriousness would be more appropriate
Main leftist opposition SYRIZA has once again failed to meet expectations by abstaining from a crucial vote in Parliament. The vote aimed to prevent the far-right political party founded by jailed MP Ilias Kasidiaris from participating in the country’s upcoming elections. Only New Democracy and PASOK supported the amendment in question. By abstaining from the vote, SYRIZA chose to prioritize its own narrow party interests and continue the established practice of flatly rejecting every government proposal, rather than standing up against neo-Nazis.
However, it must be acknowledged that the government majority’s handling of the issue of banning the latest reincarnation of Golden Dawn from entering the House was far from ideal. Since Greek courts declared Golden Dawn a criminal group and sentenced its leading members to prison in 2020, the conservative administration had two and a half years to come up with an adequate legal framework to permanently ban the neo-Nazis from participating in parliamentary elections. During this time, it could have asked for proposals from opposition parties, consulted with legal and constitutional experts, and come to an understanding with all wings of Parliament to ensure a commonly acceptable formula could be voted on unanimously by all parties.
Instead, the government showed indifference and significantly delayed dealing with this critical issue in recent months. In the end, it hastily scrambled together a bill, which was brought to a vote a few weeks ago, only to discover later that the law passed did not cover all the parameters. As a result, it ended up rushing to draft a new provision according to which the participation of Kasidiaris’ party in the elections would be decided by a larger panel of senior judges of the Supreme Court. This latest provision was only put to a vote on Tuesday, the last day of parliamentary proceedings.
A bit more seriousness would have been appropriate, especially given that this concerns a gang that aims to turn Parliament into a neo-Nazi fest.
