European Jewish Congress Award’s Greece’s PM for Ban on Neo-Nazis
The European Jewish Congress presented Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras with an award for his government’s support of a ban on the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.
The award presented to Samaras Monday during a meeting in Athens of the EJC executive committee noted Greece’s “stand against the Golden Dawn party, who want to use and abuse democracy for their hateful and racist agenda,” the EJC wrote in a statement.
In September, Samaras said at a reception held in his honor in New York by the American Jewish Committee that he would try to eliminate the party. That month, Greek officials said they would outlaw the group following the slaying of Pavlos Fyssas, a prominent anti-fascist musician, allegedly at the hands of a man with ties to Golden Dawn.
“We ask that this experience and leadership be used as an example and a model for the rest of Europe when Greece assumes the rotating EU presidency in January,” said EJC President Moshe Kantor.
Golden Dawn, once a fringe group known for Hitler salutes and Holocaust denial, won 7 percent of the vote in the 2012 national elections.
Polls this fall indicated that Golden Dawn had a 15 percent approval rating among Greek voters.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO