Greece’s Golden Dawn Vows to Run in May Vote Despite Crackdown

Greece’s ultra-right Golden Dawn will find a way to contest local and European elections in May despite a crackdown on the party, a senior lawmaker told a defiant crowd of a few thousand supporters in central Athens.

Golden Dawn’s leader and five other lawmakers are in jail due to an investigation into whether it is a criminal organisation, but it remains Greece’s third most popular party.

The fate of the party is being closely watched ahead of the May vote–where it is expected to perform strongly due to a wave of anger against government cuts–amid speculation of new efforts to rein in the group, which denies it is neo-Nazi.

“We will participate in the elections, one way or another,” Ilias Kasidiaris, the most prominent public face of the party since its leader’s arrest, told about 3,000 supporters rallying in Athens to mark the anniversary of a 1996 dispute over an islet that brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of war.

Two opinion polls published last week showed the party, which has a Swastika-like emblem and believes in ridding Greece of the “stench” of immigrants, would get 8.9 to 10.3 percent of the vote if elections were held now.

Kasidiaris, who plans to run for Athens mayor in May, suggested that a new party, National Dawn, could replace Golden Dawn if it was prevented from running in the election.

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Six of the party’s 18 lawmakers including Mihaloliakos are in pre-trial detention over a probe into Golden Dawn and a string of attacks against immigrants and political opponents.

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