“A historic sham”: Zelensky’s speech to Greece’s parliament sparks national outrage, opens WWII-era wounds
By inviting an Azov fighter to address Greece’s parliament, Zelensky opened the country’s historic wounds and triggered angry demonstrations that have shaken its pro-US government.
by TJ Coles
Part 7 - Zelensky brings Nazis to Greece for “a historic sham”
This March, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) announced that its 15 lawmakers would boycott Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech to the 300-seat Bouleterion (parliament). The parliament’s Vice President, Geórgios Lambroúlis, and one of Greece’s elected representatives at the European Union, Sotirios Zarianopoulos, had already been barred from Kiev for backing the Ukrainian Communist Party, which Zelensky has banned and whose Youth Leaders, brothers Mikhail and Alexander Kononovich, are currently imprisoned
As The Grayzone reported, Zelensky’s SBU security services have escalated its campaign of terror against political opposition since war with Russia erupted, arresting, torturing and even occasionally assassinating officials, human rights activists and leftists considered “pro-Russian” or overly critical of Kiev’s objectives. Like the Greek KYP, the Ukrainian SBU has been trained by the CIA.
As The Grayzone reported, Zelensky’s SBU security services have escalated its campaign of terror against political opposition since war with Russia erupted, arresting, torturing and even occasionally assassinating officials, human rights activists and leftists considered “pro-Russian” or overly critical of Kiev’s objectives. Like the Greek KYP, the Ukrainian SBU has been trained by the CIA.
With Zelensky’s arrival to Greece’s parliament, the communist KKE denounced what it called “a reactionary government [in Ukraine] backed by the US-NATO-EU camp and like Russia is responsible for the drama of the Ukrainian people.”
Unlike the KKE, the leftish (but in reality, liberal) Syriza party initially welcomed Zelensky. Yet the screening of a video featuring a self-professed ethnic Greek Azov fighter spouting about how his grandfather fought the Third Reich was too much even for Syriza.
Unlike the KKE, the leftish (but in reality, liberal) Syriza party initially welcomed Zelensky. Yet the screening of a video featuring a self-professed ethnic Greek Azov fighter spouting about how his grandfather fought the Third Reich was too much even for Syriza.
Former PM Tsipras of the Syriza party tweeted: “The speech was a provocation” and an “historic sham.” Meanwhile, Syriza’s former Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, who quit/was fired in 2015 for opposing his ruling party’s privatization and austerity agenda, issued an impassioned condemnation of the spectacle: “By bringing Nazis into the video call in front of the Greek parliament to speak on behalf of his government and by failing to make any comment on the Cyprus issue,” i.e. Turkey’s invasion, Zelensky “insulted the parliaments and the peoples of our countries.”
A majority of the Greek public joined the left leaders in expressing revulsion at Zelensky’s performance. Asked by pollsters this April for their impressions of the Ukrainian president’s speech before parliament, 50% of respondents described it as “very bad”, 15% called “bad”, while 16% said they were “neutral.” Only 11% of Greeks described Zelensky’s speech as “good” or “very good.”
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