Greek Elections 2023: Can Spartiates party election be annulled if relationship with Kasidiaris proven?

Closely connected to neo-Nazi Ilias Kasidiaris is far-right Spartiates party, as on the evening of Sunday 25 June the founder of the party, Vassilis Stigas, thanked the convicted leader of a criminal organization for giving them “the impetus for this result”, meaning their entry in Parliament.

But Ilias Kasidiaris also celebrated the success of the Spartans from prison, speaking of an “unrepeatable triumph of those fighting for the Fatherland” in his post.

Speaking to MEGA channel, constitutional expert Konstantinos Botopoulos emphasized that there is no doubt about the ties between the Spartiates and Ilias Kasidiaris. As he mentioned, the first stage, that is the participation in the elections, has passed, while the next stage is the electoral court, the supreme court that now judges on elected parties.

“The first phase is for some parties to enter the electoral process, that has passed. Now we have the following question, the parties that have been elected, have they been elected correctly? This, says the Constitution, is done from two points of view: in terms of conducting the elections and in terms of the legal conditions of the election,” he said initially.

A repeat election would be needed

“If there is any such case it will result in disqualification. If we went so far as to say that there was a problem with the participation of the particular party, we would go so far as to have to repeat all the elections, because we would ask a party to get out of the way because it participated illegally in some way in the elections and it would have to be repeated” , said Mr. Botopoulos

“The provision that was made could only have one purpose,” he said regarding the exclusion of Ilias Kasidiaris from participating in the elections by the supreme court.

“A democratic state cannot try to exclude a party because it does not like its ideas. What does this provision try and succeed in doing? The disqualification of the participation in Parliament of a person, because that was the only thing he could do, who is connected to various offenses directed against the Republic. That another party that did not consist of this person or did not have a member of it and went through the judgment of the Supreme Court, that did not have some evidence that there was criminal activity by members of this party is something that could not be avoided.” concluded.

The objection to the electoral court should be made soon, as the law leaves a margin of 15 days from the official declaration of the new deputies, however the judgment is expected to take place over time.