Gov’t urgently tables new amendment in Parliament to prevent new Kasidiaris party from ballot

The interior ministry on Friday afternoon urgently tabled a draft amendment in Parliament essentially aimed to block a new political party, established by jailed one-time Golden Dawn lieutenant and MP Ilias Kasidiaris, from participating in the upcoming May 21 election.

A previous such amendment, which was ratified earlier this year, forbids the electoral participation of a party’s whose “real leadership” has been convicted of specific felonies – i.e. establishing and running a criminal organization, the convicted that disbanded Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi).

However, when it appeared that Kasidiaris would use “straw men” as titular presidents and secretaries of his newly minted extreme right party, the interior and justice ministry leaderships went back to the “drawing boards” to legally preclude such a prospect.

The new draft amendment reads, among others: “The real leadership means that a person other than the one who officially holds the position of president, general secretary, governing committee member, legal representative … has installed a virtual leadership, in order to retain a leading political role vis-a-vis the electorate”.

The new amendment, if passed, would require a plenary session of Greece’s supreme court to rule on the legality of a political party whose leadership is burdened with specific felonious convictions. Currently, such a case would be adjudicated by a high court session involving five justices.