Exclusion of far-right parties narrows field for election

Greece goes to the polls on May 21 to elect a new parliament. In the run-up to the election, there has been a major shakeup of the right-wing field. Some 50 political groupings applied to field candidates in the upcoming election, 15 of which are further to the right than the ruling conservative New Democracy (ND) party.

However, not all of them have been cleared to contest the election. One of the parties that's been banned from taking part is the country's highest-profile extreme-right party, the Greeks (Hellenes) Party. It was founded by the former lawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris, who was an MP for the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party and was long seen as the party's leader-in-waiting.

A self-confessed anti-Semite and Holocaust denier who has a swastika tattooed on one arm, Kasidiaris was sentenced in October 2020 to 13 years and 6 months in prison for running a criminal organization.

But this has not stopped Kasidiaris from communicating with his supporters, drumming up support for his party and sharing YouTube videos — all from behind bars.

Right-wing extremists excluded by Supreme Court

In early May, however, Greece's Supreme Court put a stop to Kasidiaris' political ambitions by banning his party from the upcoming election. In a 400-page explanation of the ruling, the judges outlined why Ilias Kasidiaris had been banned from standing in the election.

To begin with, they argued, Kasidiaris had been found guilty of leading a criminal organization. Furthermore, he had incited people to violence, promoted a policy that is disrespectful of democracy and sought to weaken democratic state institutions and the of rule of law.

This was the first time since 1974 that the Supreme Court excluded a party from elections on policy grounds rather than just on formalities.

No neo-Nazis on the ballot

The court's ruling means that no militant, extreme right-wing party will be in the next parliament. The Supreme Court excluded 13 other parties from the election as well, some of which also belong to the right wing of the political spectrum.

"There will be no Golden Dawn successor in the next parliament," said Vassiliki Georgiadou, professor of political science at the Panteion University in Athens. "But that doesn't mean that there is no longer a demand for a radical right-wing party like this. The voters for such a party are there."

Georgiadou, an expert in radical right-wing parties, expects that while some of these voters won't vote on May 21, some will look for other extreme right-wing splinter parties whose ideas align with their own.

At least three of these parties were banned from the election on formalities, for example because they had copied parts of each other's names. On the right, all of the parties want "Hellenic" and "Patriotic" in their names, and they all want to attract voters with anti-migrant rhetoric and by speaking out against any form of dialogue with Turkey. 

The anti-immigration ticket

The only "Hellenic" party that is still in the race and could potentially pass the minimum three-percent threshold to enter parliament is Kyriakos Velopoulos' Greek Solution (Elliniki Lisi).

Greek Solution has been in the Greek parliament since 2019 and has much in common with Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. "Velopoulos' party belongs to the family of populist, radical parties on the extreme right that are against immigration, multi-culturalism and globalization," explained Georgiadou.

From TV salesman to politics

Velopoulos started out as a salesman on television, selling everything from creams that could allegedly heal any ailment to letters purported to have been written by Jesus Christ. During the pandemic, he claimed that his creams were effective against COVID-19 and made vaccination unnecessary.

Velopoulos likes to portray himself as a conservative eurosceptic. Economically, he is in favor of both the free market and a strong welfare state. Greek Solution is calling for greater support for the lower social classes — but only for Greeks, not for immigrants. What's more, Velopoulos hasn't made a secret of his admiration for Russia .

He has been a member of parliament for 15 years, initially as an MP for the extreme right-wing LAOS party, which has since virtually merged with the ruling New Democracy party and has three important ministers in the current government. Velopoulos founded his own party in 2016.

The battle for voters on the right has begun

Greek Solution is at present New Democracy's biggest rival on the right. Every vote cast for Greek Solution means one vote less for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' party. This is why it is important for ND to win over as many ultra-conservative voters as it can — which is where the issue of refugees comes in.

Since 2020, PM Mitsotakis has been portraying himself as the man to protect the borders of Greece and Europe against the "migrant invasion." He recently posed for photos at the fence along the Evros River on the border to Turkey, just as Donald Trump did at the fence along the US-Mexican border. He is also standing for election in the Evros constituency to underline his claim that border protection is his priority. Whether this will be enough to lure voters away from Velopoulos remains to be seen.

"The photo of Mitsotakis beside the fence in Evros will, of course, play a role," said Vassiliki Georgiadou, who added it's likely to help ND poach votes from the extreme right. Georgiadou said she is also convinced that Mitsotakis' message will appeal to not just the right wing, but to large parts of the Greek electorate.

"It's not just conservative and nationalist voters who have a negative attitude to immigration," she said, explaining that this attitude became entrenched in the 1990s. "Even though we have third-generation Albanian migrants in our country, opinion polls show that anti-Albanian feeling is widespread in Greek society."

This article was originally published in German