Syrzia enters coalition with anti-Semites

     


Most of the left has been experiencing euphoria about the election of the "anti-capitalist" Syrzia to power in Greece. However there is one disturbing post script to this election that seems to be being ignored.

Syrzia has entered into a coalition with a small party called the Independent Greeks in order to get a majority in parliament. So exactly who are these people. The blogger An Irate Greek explains:

I am incensed – INCENSED – that SYRIZA chose to go for a coalition with Independent Greeks instead of repeat elections. I believe that people like Panos Kammenos – the raving, racist lunatic who said last week that that “Buddhists, Jews and Muslims don’t pay taxes” – should never, ever be given positions of power. Furthermore, accepting people such as Kammenos in a left-led government is playing with fire because it gives public and political legitimacy to his xenophobic, racist, antisemitic, homophobic views and Greece doesn’t need more of that when it already has a neo-Nazi party as its third largest political force.

Nor is this odd alliance new. Andrew Flood writes:

I saw this morning that they have gone into coalition with what has been described as an anti-migrant right (or even far right) party called the Independent Greeks ( or ANEL). ANEL have a strong anti-ECB stance but on the level of seeing Greeks as a victim of an 'International Conspiracy'. Tie that into their leader claiming falsely that Jews pay no Taxes and it should sound warning bells. They do have 15 elected members so it gives the coalition a strong majority and Syriza have worked with them in the past. Presumably this and their strong anti ECB stance is why Syriza has decided that their anti-migration policies are not important.

Lets examine part of that statement again:

Syrzia have worked with them before.

Disturbing.

Here's a little bit more about the nasty little allies of the comrades in Syrzia courtesy of Open Democracy:

"The Independent Greeks differ from Syriza on many traditionally conservative issues, pledging to crack down on illegal immigration and defend the close links between the Orthodox Church and the state."

"The party programme introduced the notion of a 2.5% quota for non-Greek population residing in the country. It advocated for maximum-security detention facilities in distant and isolated places, the mass expulsion of illegal immigrants, and a hierarchy of 'preferred' immigration by country of origin, heavily biased towards western and Latin American countries."

How do the "anti-racists" of Syrzia explain this I wonder?

The far left and the far right finding common ground.

Who would have ever thought....