With 235 votes in favor and 34 abstentions, Parliament voted in favor of an amendment for the suspension of Golden Dawn’s funding. The proposal was supported by government partners New Democracy and PASOK, as well as DIMAR and opposition leaders SYRIZA. KKE and ANEL abstained, while Golden Dawn’s MP left the room during the vote, claiming that the amendment was unconstitutional.
Despite the increased majority and overall consent between the government and the opposition, there was some resistance on SYRIZA’s behalf. Zoi Konstantopoulou abstained from the vote, while Petros Lafazanis explained that while he disagreed with the amendment, he voted in favor in order to deny New Democracy and PASOK the opportunity to “play dirty games” against his party. Manolis Glezos was not present for the vote as he also disagreed with the amendment. Other noticeable absentees include the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, former PM and Giorgos Papandreou and the Minister of Transport Michalis Chrysochoidis.
Golden Dawn’s Ilias Kasidiaris claimed that there were no legal provisions for the suspension of the government funding towards his party and the vote was an outright violation of the presumption of innocence. The ultra nationalist party representative added that all the funding suspension will achieve “is to deny a helping hand from some Greeks”.
More Golden Dawn MPs to lose parliamentary immunity
The Parliamentary Ethics Committee proposed that the Parliamentary Assembly votes in favor of lifting the parliamentary immunity of Golden Dawn MPs Kasidiaris, Panagiotaros, Boukouras and Zaroulia. Of the two Golden Dawn MPs present fo the hearing, Zaroulia insinuated that the event that resulted in her indictment was staged, while Boukouras reported that he cannot judge the extreme behavior of some of his colleagues.
Zaroulia is being charged with trying to smuggle a bullet to her husband and party leader Michaloliakos during his detainment at the Police HQ. The other MPs Panagiotaros, Kasidiaris and Boukouras are being accused of participating in a number of violent acts, such as at the recent Meligalas memorial service.
