Guardian: Too little, too late to block Kasidiaris from running for Greek parliament?

The Guardian comments in an article on the amendment to ban the Kasidiaris party in elections and his preaching hate from prisons, using a mobile device.

For two years Ilias Kasidiaris, convicted leader of the now dissolved neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, has been using social media to address supporters from Domokos prison in central Greece, the article says.

However, the statement by Kostis Papaioannou, who runs Signal, a research group that studies far-right extremism, that Kasidiaris’ popularity has increased as a result of the videos he posted on social media from prison is causing concern.

The ban, as the Guardian writes, to Ilias Kasidiaris “could bring more problems than solutions”.

The former MP convicted of organized crime has railed against the inability of the “corrupt political regime” to rule the country in a series of hate-filled speeches. To his 134,000 YouTube subscribers, the exhortations are “a lifeline for Kasidiaris and Greeks for the Motherland, the small nationalist party he founded shortly before he was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison for his role in Golden Dawn.

How was the image of Kasidiaris affected?

Thirty months after the violent neo-fascist group was found to be a criminal gang masquerading as a political organization – targeting migrants, murdering Pavlos Fyssas and beating leftists – the popularity of the infamous Kasidiaris does not appear to have faded, according to the British media.

“On the contrary it seems to have grown,” says Kostis Papaioannou, who directs Signal, a research group that studies far-right extremism. “He’s even been given the opportunity to conduct radio shows from his cell and has been very effective in using social media to rally support among the young. It’s worrying. If general elections were held tomorrow his party would likely exceed the 3% threshold to get into parliament.”

On Wednesday, less than six weeks before Greece goes to the polls, Domoko’s prison disciplinary board convened in an emergency session as it began to examine whether the 42-year-old had breached prison rules that allow him to have contact only with close family and lawyers – exchanges which can only be carried out using a telephone. The council is expected to announce possible punitive measures on April 20.

Increasingly, Greeks are asking how a notorious inmate at a maximum-security prison that houses some of the nation’s most hardened criminals could so blatantly break prison code, uploading videos to Twitter and even addressing meetings of party executives of, even by telephone.

“He should have acted immediately after the court’s verdict when Golden Dawn and its leaders were found to be a criminal organization,” Papaioannou said. “But the government did not want to alienate Kasidiaris’ base. He has lost a lot of support, especially among the right-wing in northern Greece,” he says, commenting on the draft law to block Kasidiaris from running in the elections.

In a nation where the Communist Party has long been outlawed, the ban has raised concerns about its constitutionality – the left-wing opposition abstained from Tuesday’s vote arguing it would set a dangerous precedent and even work to the unrepentant Kasidiaris’ advantage, reports the British Guardian.