We are used to reading about surreally anomalous appointments of representatives from repressive regimes to key UN committees. But recently something similar has happened within the Council of Europe. A member of the Greek Golden Dawn party, Eleni Zaroulia, has joined its Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination of the Parliamentary Assembly.
Its doctrine echoes Nazi principles by proposing that, “only men and women of Greek descent and consciousness should have full political rights.” Copies of “Mein Kampf,” as well as other works on Greek racial superiority, are openly displayed at party headquarters.
Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos has denied that ovens and gas chambers were used in Nazi concentration camps to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust.
A recent report in the Independent highlights several concerns about the party:
But the rise of the party has ugly consequences. Recently, Golden Dawn MPs smashed the stalls of immigrants in Rafina. Rights groups have criticised the police for standing by while attacks on foreigners have increased. Last Saturday, thugs broke into the home of the imam of the Pakistani community.
“The rise of fascism in Greece is very dangerous,” Javed Aslam, president of the Greek Pakistani community, said. “I don’t understand how Europe can remain silent about this terrorism.”
Crimes against immigrants are on the increase, and the police (many of whom apparently support the neo-Fascist party) often seem to turn a blind eye, or even send victims of crime to Golden Dawn for assistance. The ADL has condemned the appointment of Eleni Zeroulia which it describes as ‘an affront to concepts of equality and non-discrimination’
