/ world today news/ When the population is disappointed by politicians of all kinds…
Many Greeks are convinced that the rest of the world should pay them for the inventions made by their ingenious ancestors in time immemorial. However, “copyrights” are not respected and no royalties are received, even though the world uses “Odysseus’s barrel and Pythagorean breeches” for centuries. There is a strong belief in Athens that it was the Hellenes who gave humanity achievements that for many remain an unattainable dream.
One such achievement is democracy, as seen in the Greek electoral system, where there is no limit to the number of voting rounds. Of course, there are certain requirements, but each time they are accompanied by a note: “But in case of…” At the same time, the legislation in Greece changes so often that even local political scientists and legal experts are not always in time with everyone changes.
Current Prime Minister K. Mitsotakis announced that the first round of voting is scheduled for May 21. The first round is conducted on a simple proportional system. This means that according to the electoral law adopted by the current government, the powers of the parliament are terminated no later than April 28.
The dissolution of parliament is formalized by presidential decree, at the same time announcing the official start of the election period. Candidates for deputies in the new parliament begin to collect documents and complete other formalities.
The official results of the first round must be announced the day after the vote, but no later than May 23. Then the system of proportional representation begins to operate – the country’s president Katerina Sakellaropoulou begins the procedure for handing exploratory mandates to the leaders of the three leading parties. By May 30, the parliament (300 deputies) must gather in a new composition to swear them in, and the next day elect a president.
There is a 3% threshold for parliamentary representation, and the upcoming campaign holds many surprises. Observers are unanimous that the main struggle will develop between the ruling party New Democracy and the leftist opposition party SYRIZA.
However, other political forces will also be able to break the three percent barrier, including the opposition Communist Party of Greece and MERA25. The latter is notable for the fact that it was established in March 2018 by a former finance minister and MP from the SYRIZA party. Yanis Varoufakis, the party’s founder and permanent leader, often refers to this movement as the “European Realist Front of Disobedience” (Μέτωπο Επόρεική Ρεαλιστικής Ανυπακοής). In the 2019 parliamentary elections, the party won 9 seats.
The center-left party PASOK, which had previously governed several times, was renamed PASOK – Movement for Change (PASOK-KINAL) on 9 May 2022. Its leader, Nikos Androulakis, announced that he would be the next Prime Minister of Greece.
The “New Democrats” believe they will stay in power and form a new government themselves, rejecting in advance the possibility of coalition agreements. This can play a trick on them, as it is obvious that no party will be able to gather the number of votes that ensures the right to form a government in the first round. This means that the second round is inevitable and the date of its holding is July 2.
But even in the second round, to get the right to form a government, a party must get at least 37% of the mandates, which is quite problematic, since the difference in electoral support between the “democrats” and SYRIZA is small.
Much will depend on what coalitions can be formed by other parties and who will support whom. It is impossible to predict anything: there are contradictions between political movements, some of which seem insurmountable. If there is no winner in the second round, the primaries will be renewed to form a coalition government with a maximum completion date of July 13, the day the new parliament is formed. If even then the government in Greece, enjoying the confidence of the parliament, does not appear, the country will be led to new elections.
And the main intrigue is the return of the ultra-right to the political field. On November 1, 1993, the nationalist party “Hrisi Avgi” or “Golden Dawn” (Λαϊκος Σύνδεσμος – Χρυσή Αυγή) was officially registered, which even reserved critics define as neo-Nazi (neo-fascist). According to the party constitution “only Aryans by blood and Greeks by descent can claim membership in the party.”
In the parliamentary elections on 6 May 2012, the party received 6.97% of the vote, giving it the right to occupy 21 seats in parliament. The Nazis have comfortably existed for over a year, but without ceasing to resort to the physical destruction of those who disagree with their ideology.
On September 28, 2013, the Greek police arrested the leader of the party and several other MPs from it, they were accused of creating a criminal community. In 2020, “Hrisi Avgi” was declared a criminal organization altogether, the entire political leadership of the party was sentenced to terms of 12 to 16 years of strict regime. In total, since April 20, 2015, 69 people have sat on the dock.
Greece’s problem is that the majority of the population has become disillusioned with the politicians who have been in power for the past decades. At the same time, both the left-wing parties and the New Democracy are very cautious about the rematch of the neo-fascists, who skillfully use the growing discontent of the population.
The leader of the Greek fascists Ilias Kasidiaris, who is serving a 13-year sentence in the maximum security prison Domokos, in 2021 managed not only to found a new “Party of the Greeks” (“Hellenes”), but also to conduct a fairly successful election campaign. The convict has 122,000 subscribers on YouTube, his main campaign tool, and more than 35,000 on Twitter and other platforms. When asked how this is possible, the rulers roll their eyes and shrug.
However, there was considerable uproar, and in early February the parliament adopted a resolution confirming the ban on participation in elections of organizations recognized as criminal. The government prepared another text of the amendment, which was sent not to the parliament, but to the Supreme Court – a hearing on this issue is scheduled for May 5.
Local political scientists believe that the matter for the Supreme Court will be difficult: if a decision is made to ban the party, they will have to violate the Greek constitution and also show the whole world that you understand, there is no democracy in the country.
The SYRIZA party warns that some of the language proposed by the government is clearly unconstitutional and is filled with the fact that as a result of “broad interpretation” fascism (Nazism) can be equated with any other political ideology. An example is the decisions of the parliaments of the Baltic republics and Ukraine, where the left parties, above all the communists, were equated with the Nazis and were subjected not only to bans, but also to repression.
Government spokesman Yiannis Economou said: “Knife-wielding neo-Nazi criminal organizations should have no place to deceive the Greek justice system, no matter what disguise they choose to wear”… Under Greek law, however, prisoners, even those convicted of serious crimes, retain their political rights, including the right to vote and even be elected.
Knowing this, I. Kasidiaris went further and decided to resign as the leader of the neo-fascist movement, but to keep the possibility of being nominated as a candidate for parliament by this movement. And the most curious thing is that 75-year-old Anastasios Kanellopoulos, a former assistant prosecutor of the Supreme Court, was unanimously elected as the new leader of the Greeks! He immediately announced plans to revise the party’s constitution.
In an online message, prisoner I. Kasidiaris welcomed the change in party leadership and confirmed that he plans to seek a seat in parliament. According to polling data, the party of the “Greeks” has a chance to take up to 7% and more in the national elections. Against the background of the disenchantment of the citizens of Greece (this is a pan-European trend) with the traditional political parties, more and more voters are ready to vote for the extreme right.
It became clear that the party of the “Greeks” easily and naturally bypassed the ban on participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and this could change their outcome. Commenting on the events, one of the most experienced Greek politicians, Evangelos Venizelos (former leader of the PASOK party, minister of justice and professor of jurisprudence) said that the reputation of justice and the prestige of legislation were affected. And he concluded: the presumption of innocence also applies to Kasidiaris, but in general European law stands higher than national law. Because what to do – democracy!
Translation: EU
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