The Greek government said on Tuesday it is prepared to ban a pan-European gathering of extreme right political groups that has been sharply criticised by Jewish, leftist and anti-racist organisations.

The "Eurofest" event, due to be held from 16 to 18 September, was initiated by the Greek neo-Nazi group Chryssi Avghi (Golden Dawn) and includes far-right organisations from throughout Europe.

Greek government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos told a news briefing that the administration "condemns events of the sort which give rise to racist phenomena."

He said authorities had not received any request for permission to hold the event and that in any case it would breach constitutional constraints.

Jews critical

The Central Council of Jews in Greece has reportedly been critical of the Greek government’s delay in condemning the planned event, while last Friday the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Affairs, Dr Shimon Samuels, asked Athens to block what it called "the defamation of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust."

According to Samuels, the meeting would be hosted by the Chryssi Avgi, while co-organizers include the German NPD, the Italian Forza Nuova, and Spain’s Falange".

Forza Nuova protest against immigration this year in Italy

Samuels pointed to the comment in Golden Dawn’s June newssheet, "Resistance and Counterattack", that calls WWII "a civil conflict in which the European nations slaughtered one another, with greater losses for both sides than the ’millions’ of ever persecuted crooked noses from Judea."

The Centre called on the Prime Minister "to prevent this profanation of the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, and to draw its lessons by ensuring Greek commitments to the European Union, the Council of Europe and the OSCE, to prosecute all incitement to hatred."

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece stressed to EJP that although "forbidding a neo-nazi meeting is not the best way to combat fascist ideology, nevertheless, the banning of this neo-nazi meeting by the Greek Government is important as these parties and movements aim to the abolishment of democracy, which, in the same time, they invoke in order to spread their ideas." "These ideas and practices, 60 years ago, led to World War II," the organisation added. 


Jewosh organization intervention

European Jewish Congress President Pierre Besnainou welcomed the Greek decision to ban the meeting. "This is an additional step in our fight against extreme-right which should be eradicated in Europe since a long time," he was quoted as saying.

Besnainou, who was elected last June at the head of the paneuropean Jewish organiztion, stressed  that his organization had intervened in this issue with Greek President Kostas Karamanlis.  

The EJC president had initially warned that affiliated Jewish communities in Europe would demonstrate in front of Greek embassies “if things are not evolving positively.”

Organisers have been pressurised into changing the location of the event. It was initially planned to take place in the Peloponnese region of ’Hellas, the Land of Heroes’. Chryssi Avghi spokesman Dimitris Eleftheropoulos said that it would now take place on an island in the region around Athens. He did not elaborate.

Front National rebukes the meeting

Alain Vizier, the French Front National extreme right party press officer, declared to EJP  that his party would not participate to the meeting organised by Chryssi Avgi. He stressed that "whereas the parties that are participating are from the extreme right, the Front National is not and we will not attend the event."

Chryssi Avgi militants openly supported Front National Chairman Jean-Marie Le Pen during France’s presidential elections in 2002. In April 2002, days before the second round of the elections opposing Jacques Chirac to Jean-Marie Le Pen, members of Chryssi Avgi staged demonstrations in central Athens in support of the extreme right leader.