[R-G] Greece: Far-right party set to enter parliament

[Anthony Fenton]

Far-right party set to enter parliament
Sep 17, 2007 12:46 PM
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1318360/1353702

Greece's LA O S became the first far-right party to enter parliament  
since a seven-year dictatorship ended in 1974, playing on public  
discontent at a wave of immigration with firebrand nationalist rhetoric.

Partial results from Sunday's election gave the right-wing Popular  
Orthodox Alarm party, or LA O S, 3.6% of the vote and 10 seats in the  
300-member parliament.

Like other groups, LA O S capitalised on voter discontent with bigger  
and more established parties in the wake of financial scandals in  
Greece, and devastating forest fires which killed 65 people in August.

"The main role of LA O S in the next parliament will be to (make  
sure) Greece will be for the Greeks," LA O S leader George  
Karatzaferis said on Sunday.

Karatzaferis, a former bodybuilder, has called on Greeks to unite  
against "the enemies" surrounding the nation in a reference to  
Albania, Macedonia and Turkey.

Posters of his party pasted around Athens showed Karatzaferis  
throwing a punch "against the establishment" with a red boxing glove.

Another pamphlet has a caricature of him dressed as Robin Hood, the  
English folklore hero who took from the rich to give to the poor.

Analysts draw comparisons between his party and similar movements  
that have emerged across Europe.

"There has been a trend in Greek society, an ethno-centric trend,  
against the establishment. Up to a point LA O S is trying to express  
this," said Gerasimos Moschonas, a political sciences professor at  
Athens's Pantio University.

"Because of the dictatorship, a vote for the far right was  
(previously) always viewed as something of a forbidden fruit,"  
Moschonas said.

Greeks still carry painful memories of the junta that collapsed in 1974.

Previous efforts by right-wing extremists to enter parliament have  
failed.

LA O S rejects the nationalist tag, but in previous elections it has  
recruited members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group, which has been  
blamed for violent attacks against leftist groups and immigrants.

Many Greeks blame a rising crime wave partly on east European  
immigrants who fled after the collapse of communism.

LA O S plays on such fears, and has campaigned for quotas on  
immigration.

"What we want is to set a limit. How many more can Greece take? And  
above all, they must come in legally, not jump over the fence,"  
Karatzaferis said in a recent interview.