Ben Quinn and Ross Domoney, Sunday 10th June 2012 15:07
One of the two Greek female politicians assaulted last week on live television by an MP from a far-right party has said the attack reveals the true nature of Greece's Golden Dawn movement.
Rena Dourou, a deputy with the radical Syriza party who had a glass of water hurled in her face moments before Ilias Kasidiaris slapped a communist MP during a political panel discussion, also said that women and immigrants were on the receiving end of violence every night in the Greek capital, Athens.
"What we saw [on television] is something that happens almost every night in some dark places here in the centre of Athens against women or immigrants but they don't have the rights, the privileges, to condemn all this in front of cameras," Dourou said in an interview with the Guardian.
She said the actions of Kasidiaris, spokesman for the Golden Dawn party, who has been in hiding since he assaulted Dourou and Liana Kanelli on the popular Good Morning Greece TV show, revealed the "true nature" of group, which captured 7% of the vote during Greece's general election last month.
Dourou also said that, on the same day as the assault, members of Golden Dawn injured 15 students and three immigrants at a Greek university campus.
She added: "I am worried that, according to some political analysts and sociologists, many – of course not the majority but it is still an issue – policemen and officers voted during the last election for this organisation."
The Syriza MP also voiced concern about the extent to which teenagers and children who watched the attack on television could be impressed by it, and that Greek citizens in general could increasingly view Golden Dawn as a solution because so many felt "desperate and hopeless" because of the impact of the severe austerity measures Greece is being subjected to.
"The next step is to accept this kind of behaviour, slapping and speaking in an improper way. They think this organisation will be the punishment for the whole political system," she said.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Saturday, Kasidiaris threatened to sue his victims, claiming they had provoked his attack. He added that he regretted becoming involved in an incident that could damage the party's image before another general election on 17 June, but blamed his leftwing adversaries for his actions.
http://gu.com/p/387qv
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