Golden Dawn Gains Votes

Some contenders have come out openly saying they would like to woo voters from Golden Dawn, often adding that they want to detach them from the fascist party. Others are openly claiming that they want no part of the fascist vote.

Mr Tsipras in his speech in Patras, on Tuesday, made a call for all anti-memorandum forces to support SYRIZA candidates in the second round. This begs the question, whether this includes GD voters. It certainly does not exclude them.

In the Athens race, although Mr Kaminis, the incumbent, accused his opponent Gavriil Sakellaridis of “winking” to GD voters in light of the second round, adding that “you can't wink at them in anti-memorandum fashion with one eye, and with the other wink to migrants. You can't be crosseyed when talking of Golden dawn.” In response, Mr Sakellaridis noted that not all voters of GD are fascists, adding that “we are not opening up to criminals and fascists. We don't want them.”

Meanwhile speaking to Elli Stai, on TheTOC, Mr Kaminis said that he wants the votes of those who voted Golden Dawn in the first round.

The same was also said by two other guests on TheTOC. Rena Dourou, SYRIZA candidate for the Attica region said to Elli Stai that she wanted “everyone's vote” in the second round. Vasilis Mihaloliakos, incumbent mayor in Piraeus, after accusing Golden Dawn of ordering its voters to vote for his opponent, clarified that he would also seek to detach voters from the neo-Nazi party.

Candidate for the European parliament with DIMAR, Andreas Papadopoulos, has come out categorically against seeking fascist votes, but then again, all parties are still in the running for the European elections, so it's safe to say no right wing votes will be coming his way, anyway. On the other side of the coin SYRIZA candidate in the European elections Alekos Kalyvis, stated that GD voters do not all identify with the party leadership and should be “drawn to” the Left.

This wrangling is probably more intense behind the scenes, where the public cannot scrutinize behaviors that may be considered damaging for politicians involved.