Politics makes strange bedfellows indeed, but this could be the strangest one yet: the New Democracy (ND) Conservatives and their bitter enemy, the major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA).
That’s the idea of SYRIZA outspoken MP Petros Tatsopoulos who said the rivals have to form some kind of faction to combat the rising influence of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party at the next elections,, even though Prime Minister and ND leader Antonis Samaras takes positions similar to the extremists, particularly an anti-immigrant stance.
Speaking to ANT-1 TV, Tatsopoulos said that opinion polls over the last few months had consistently produced two “unpleasant” findings: a narrow difference between SYRIZA and New Democracy and that Golden Dawn is Greece’s third biggest party. “This would allow a pure Nazi party to become the key component in the post-electoral landscape,” he said.
“We could find ourselves in the unpleasant situation of having a government whose survival will depend on the Nazis being willing to tolerate it, which would create a Nazi agenda,” he said.
Tatsopoulos has frequently criticized Golden Dawn and he argued that the neo-Nazis were already having an influence over Greek politics, citing the withdrawal of an anti-racism bill by Samaras and his coalition partner, the PASOK Socialists. “Rather than have a situation where the Nazis set policy, my view is that we should look at other solutions,” Tatsopoulos said.
The SYRIZA deputy’s view was welcomed by Democratic Left, whose spokesman Andreas Papadopoulos said via Twitter that Tatsopoulos’ suggestion deserved closer attention. He also described the author as “one of the few who is battling” Golden Dawn.
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