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Greece: Fears for rigged elections!

Far-Right threats on the perspective of a Leftist government

globinfo freexchange

It is proven historically that when the big capital feels that its sovereignty is threatened mobilize its far-Right mechanisms. After the recent revelations for tragicomic secret meetings a few days before the national elections (http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2015/01/preparing-new-gladio-for-left-in-greece.html), new threats came publicly from the far-Right component of the neoliberal Right.

From enikos.gr:

Greek opposition parties on Monday slammed outgoing health minister and New Democracy candidate Makis Voridis after he said his party would do "whatever it takes" to prevent Syriza from winning the general elections on Sunday.

Speaking at a small gathering in Aspropyrgos on Sunday, Voridis made reference to the 1946-49 Greek Civil War, fought by pro-government and pro-royalist forces against Communist rebels, in his opening remarks.

"Our generation will not hand over the country," he said. "We will do whatever it takes. We will defend with our votes on Sunday what our grandfathers defended bravely with arms."

Voridis, who joined New Democracy in 2012 after leaving nationalist LAOS, went on to give his interpretation of the key issue at stake on January 25.

"The meaning of the confrontation next Sunday, the meaning of the elections - don’t kid yourselves: You’re not choosing a party or an economic programme. Next Sunday is a major ideological clash. It is a clash between two worlds. The clash is between the values of the homeland, religion and family, which we represent, and levelling everything, which the Left represents."

Syriza spokesman Panos Skourletis accused Voridis of making "intolerant, civil-war statements that have no precedent in the post-junta era," and called on Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to explain himself.

Skourletis said the health minister showed "the real face of Samaras’ party saying he will do 'whatever it takes' not to respect the vote of the Greek people” while adopting "slogans from the seven-year Junta."

The Democratic Left (DIMAR) also criticised Voridis for "trying to return political life to times that Greeks would prefer to forget" and added that "democracy and the popular verdict cannot be threatened or blackmailed."


What does "We will do whatever it takes." mean? Especially when it comes from far-Right Voridis? A comment picked from discussions in various websites, depicts probably the concerns of many in Greece, a few days before the elections:

[ WHAT WILL THE LEFT DO IN CASE OF RIGGED ELECTIONS?

... the state-parastate said: "We will do whatever it takes."

Historically, in Greece this has been "applied" by the (far)Right "raiders" by three ways listed below, starting from the most moderate:

a) Setting up the elections

b) Setting up and Violence

c) Dictatorship

Taking the most moderate scenario, Samaras wins by only a few votes in rigged elections (like Bush in Florida). In that case, what will SYRIZA do? Should accept the result? May I remind that we go to elections under the UNPRECEDENTED situation, which is WITHOUT an intermediate government, but also, the system of the electronic recording of the results will be conducted by a private company! ]

A short background of Voridis to understand someone the situation better. From the Press Project:

Makis Voridis, born in 1964, has been politically active for his entire adult life and the vast majority of his political career has been with groups on the extreme far right. Now he is Greece’s newest Health Minister and one of the most prominent supporters of the reform agenda.

As a high school student at Athens College (a private school and alma mater of many of the country’s business and political elite), he had leadership positions in nationalist student groups. According to a Haaretz article written by another former alumnus of the school, during his time there Voridis had formed a fascist group called ‘Free pupils’ which painted swastikas on the walls and whose members greeted each other saying ‘Heil Hitler’.

A lawyer by trade he graduated Athens University Law School in 1990. As a student Voridis is reported to have formed another fascist group and taken part in street brawls, pursuing and attacking leftist groups. Photos from this period appear to show an axe-wielding Voridis patrolling the streets. Following his graduation he was appointed leader of the youth wing of EPEN - a far-right party founded a year earlier by the jailed leader of the 1967 military coup, Giorgos Papadopoulos - succeeding Nikos Michaloliakos who went on to found the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn which he leads to this day.


A short historical background of the the elections of 1961 that became known in the Greek political history as the "elections of violence and fraud". The founder of Samaras' New Democracy, Constantine Karamanlis, won the elections. From wikipedia:

Parliamentary elections were held in Greece on 29 October 1961. The result was a third consecutive victory for Constantine Karamanlis and his National Radical Union party, which won 176 of the 300 seats in Parliament. Nevertheless, the leader of the newly formed Center Union (an alliance of all liberal and centrist parties), Georgios Papandreou and the leaders of the left-wing Pandemocratic Agrarian Front questioned the legality of the results, claiming that Karamanlis, the army and the palace rigged the vote. Papandreou announced an 'uncompromising struggle' (ανένδοτος αγών) against Karamanlis' government, demanding new elections. Karamanlis denied all the allegations of Papandreou, although the opposition parties insisted in them. Eventually, the elections of 1961 became known in the Greek political history as the 'elections of violence and fraud' (εκλογές της βίας και νοθείας).” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_legislative_election,_1961)

It would be worth to remind that after the assassination of Pavlos Fyssas, the systemic establishment "fired some warning shots":

Despite the humorous comments that flooded twitter, on rumors of a coup d'etat due to the "calling" of Greek army reservists this Saturday, the threat is real and the message is clear: either you will accept our neoliberal dictatorship with the mask of a pseudo-democracy and what this means (dissolving welfare state, dissolving labor rights, new cuts in wages and pensions, massive lay-offs and privatizations), or, you will get a military one, with the neo-nazis acting uncontrolled among you!

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