When Greek Fascists Attack Women on TV

This past weekend, a handful of fascists travelled to Brighton to shout at some anti-fascists, be kettled by local police and get sent back to London with a ticking off. Even though I've lived here for some time, I'm not English, so correct me if I'm wrong, but that's more or less what these guys do, right? Incessantly make dicks of themselves in public. Which, I'm guessing, is the reason why no one in this country takes them seriously, or at least not seriously enough to vote any political power their way. Right?

Right.

At the other end of Europe however, voters' minds are a little hazier at the minute. Everyone has known for ages that Greece (my country of birth) is fucked, but last month that was confirmed, I guess, by the entry into Greek parliament of a group called the Golden Dawn. The Golden Dawn is essentially the Hellenic equivalent of your very own EDL knuckleheads – a bunch of apes in bad clothes who, given the right circumstances, can prove to be extremely dangerous. In terms of political danger, those circumstances could be unprecendeted poverty and profound social disorientation. In terms of physical danger, those circumstances were being berated by angry women in a Greek TV studio.

What you are seeing above is a segment from a live talk show that took place this morning (Thursday, June 7th). The bald man in the suit's name is Elias Kasidiaris and he's a MP candidate for the Golden Dawn. The woman he throws the water at is Rena Dourou, a rep from the Coalition of the Radical Left, and the woman he fucking SLAPS is Liana Kaneli of the Communist Front (and this memorable Channel 4 interview).

So to try to draw some parallels for you, it's a bit like Nick Griffin going on This Morning and slapping Shami Chakrabarti. If you don't speak Greek, the two women are alleging that the Golden Dawn has links with the police and accusing Elias personally of dodging mandatory Greek national service. Things like this make me glad that when I interviewed someone from the Golden Dawn, they were at the other end of a telephone line.

UPDATE: And there is more: According to the show's presenter Giorgos Papadakis, the show went off air immediately and Elias Kasidiaris was taken to another room. Broke the door. And ran away.

At the moment, the police are scouring Greece with a warrant in their hands trying to find him.

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