Greece: Neo-Nazi MP ejected from parliament amid shouts of “Heil Hitler”

Deutsche Presse-Agentur reports that a great sensation was caused in Greece this past week when an MP from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group was ejected from a session of parliament amid shouts of the Nazi greeting “Heil Hitler”. The session chair ejected the Golden Dawn legislator after he insulted the leader of the left-wing SYRIZA coalition, Alexis Tsipras.

Representatives of the ultra-right clashed with left-wingers during debate on a new law about eliminating racism. After a Golden Dawn MP derisively referred to Tsiprasov as “Mr Alexis” and to other MPs as “goats”, according to news server ekathimerini.com, the chair of the session ejected him. His fellow party members did not like this, calling the sanction “embarrassing” and leaving the chamber together with him. During the pandemonium, “Heil Hitler” was shouted three times.

It is unclear who actually shouted the Nazi greeting. The Athens News Agency reported that Christos Pappas, the neo-Nazi party’s ideologue, was the one who shouted it, but Golden Dawn insists someone from the left shouted it to defame them.

Support has continued to rise for the extremist Golden Dawn as the economic crisis intensifies in Greece. The party won 18 seats in parliament last year. Some public opinion surveys predict it might become the third-strongest in the country during the next elections.