Minister warns that Golden Dawn could ‘destabilize’ Greece

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis has warned that there is a danger that far right Golden Dawn could “destabilize” Greece.

Speaking a day after Golden Dawn attracted hundreds of people to a food handout in front of its headquarters in Athens, Georgiadis admitted that he is concerned about the party’s rise.

“The Golden Dawn phenomenon is very dangerous,” he told Mega TV. “There is a big danger of destabilization and division.”

Georgiadis, who joined New Democracy last year from ultra-nationalist LAOS and has been accused of selling racist books in the past, said that as long as the coalition government “solves the country’s problems,” support for Golden Dawn would subside.

Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos used the food handout as an opportunity to deliver a speech to the crowd, which booed whenever he mentioned foreigners or people of other race and the word “democracy.”

The handout coincided with the anniversary of democracy being restored to Greece after the collapse of the military dictatorship, which the far-right party exalts. “The are celebrating the so-called anniversary of democracy but in fact they are celebrating the arrival of the kleptocracy, scandals and betrayal,” said Golden Dawn’s leader.

Earlier, Michaloliakos’s wife Eleni Zaroulia, who is also an MP, caused outrage when she referred to SYRIZA deputy Yiannis Dragasakis’s daughter as a “junkie” and asked whether she was still in jail. According to reports, she was arrested in March with three other suspects for allegedly possessing drugs and selling weapons.

Zaroulia’s comments were wiped from parliamentary records and prompted Parliament Speaker Evangelos Meimarakis to threaten her with expulsion. “The phrases used are disgusting and are more excessive than anything that has been heard until today,” he said.