ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s election campaign turned ugly Thursday on live TV: Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, after trading insults of “commie” and “fascist,” lunged at two female left-wing politicians on a mainstream morning talk show, throwing water at one and smacking the other three times across the face.
The outburst, a week and a half ahead of crucial elections, stunned Greeks as they seek to avoid a catastrophic exit from Europe’s common euro currency. A prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris, whose party alarmed Europe by gaining 21 of Parliament’s 300 seats in Greece’s inconclusive May 6 elections.
Golden Dawn, which vehemently denies the neo-Nazi label, has been accused of violent attacks against immigrants in Athens. The party denies involvement in the attacks, insisting it is a nationalist patriotic group. It campaigned on a platform of ridding the country of illegal immigrants and cleaning up crime-ridden neighborhoods. The party advocates planting anti-personnel mines along Greece’s borders to stop immigrants from sneaking across.
The Associated Press
