Greece’s parliament evicted a far-right lawmaker of the Golden Dawn Party for insulting other deputies during a debate on a racism bill today, the first time in 20 years that a member of parliament has been evicted.
The move prompted jeers of “Heil Hitler” from a leftist party deputy in the chamber.
Tapping into resentment over budget cuts and illegal immigration in the crisis-hit country, Golden Dawn has emerged from obscurity to become Greece’s third-biggest party, polling nearly 12 per cent.
Greece’s conservative-led government is drafting anti-racism legislation in an effort to rein in the party which it says abuses parliamentary immunity to incite racial hatred with anti-immigrant speeches.
During a debate on the racism bill, the parliamentary speaker, Yannis Dragasakis, ordered Golden Dawn lawmaker Panagiotis Iliopoulos to leave the chamber because he had insulted other deputies with his comments during the debate. Iliopoulos argued with Dragasakis and then called the other deputies “losers” and “goats”.
The Parliamentary speaker Yannis Dragasakis said: “You are not in some gang here, you are not hanging out with a group of friends here so that you can do whatever you want,” and Panagiotis Iliopoulos responded saying, “It is you that belongs to a gang,” then said to the deputies “Get out of here you losers.”
As he and the rest of the Golden Dawn deputies left the chamber, jeers of “Heil Hitler” and ‘fascists’ were heard from the other lawmakers, including the leftist SYRIZA party.
It was the first time in more than 20 years that a member of parliament has been evicted from parliament.
Golden Dawn, which organises “Greeks-only” food handouts and blood donations, denies the neo-nazi label though its emblem resembles the Swastika and there are published photographs of its supporters giving nazi-style salutes.
Its leaders have denied the Holocaust and defended Greece’s 1967-1974 military dictatorship.
A party deputy called immigrants “sub-human” in parliament last year.
The party denied any involvement in a recent wave of attacks on immigrants that activist groups have blamed on Golden Dawn sympathisers.