The Speaker of the House of Representatives should ask for an investigations into the connection between Golden Dawn and ELAM to proceed

 

14 September 2021, ‘Dialogos’ portal

AKEL has put forward the demand to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to call on the Attorney General to proceed with investigations into the connection between the Greek Golden Dawn party and the ultra-right ELAM party in Cyprus.

More specifically, speaking to the Parliamentary Selection Committee, AKEL Parliamentary Representative Giorgos Loukaides said that “yesterday AKEL put before the Speaker of the House and the other parties the demand that Parliament through the Speaker should address the Attorney General calling on him to proceed with the investigations into the relationship and connection between the Golden Dawn of Cyprus and the Golden Dawn party in Greece after the final court ruling Golden Dawn as a criminal organisation.”

The AKEL Parliamentary Representative said that this demand has already been put forward by AKEL since last October to the Attorney General but “there hasn’t been any progress recorded or any result achieved so far”, adding that “we consider that such an action by Parliament will strengthen the efforts so we can achieve a result on this very serious issue”.

“If the conclusion is that there is a link between Golden Dawn with ELAM in Cyprus and with criminal activities, then legal tools will be provided for further action to be taken by Parliament,” G.Loukaides said, adding that time has been given to the Speaker of the Parliament and the parties to take a position by the next meeting of political party leaders.

Asked to clarify whether the connection refers to ELAM leader C. Christou in person, AKEL MP G.Loukaides said “in general, but on persons too”.

“The investigation by the Attorney General’s Office must cover everything from the emergence of ELAM as a branch of the Golden Dawn party in Cyprus and the overall activity of the Golden Dawn’s branch in Cyprus, as well as Christou’s testimony that this interconnection has with absolute certainty existed,” he added.

The AKEL MP said that C. Christou in a programme on the Sigma TV station “had replied to a relevant question immediately after the murder of Greek anti-fascist Pavlos Fyssas that ‘we are the Golden Dawn of Cyprus’ and informed that they had applied to be registered as the Golden Dawn of Cyprus, but their application was rejected by the Ministry of Interior”, with G.Loukaides adding that he does not know “what other need is there to ascertain the direct link between Golden Dawn of Cyprus and Golden Dawn of Greece after the testimony of the Golden Dawn of Cyprus own local representative Christos Christou”.

AKEL Parliamentary Representative Giorgos Loukaides also said that AKEL’s demand to the Speaker of the House of Representatives “is not accidental” since a resolution has been approved by Parliament, he said, “which since 2017 has been calling on our country’s authorities to monitor the progress of the Golden Dawn trial in Greece so that they can do what we have demanded from the Attorney General, namely to investigate the connection and the relationship between Golden Dawn and ELAM”.

G.Loukaides went on to state that this resolution had been approved with the only dissenting vote being the two votes of ELAM. He said that the Speaker of the House must call on the Attorney General to proceed with the investigation and its completion as soon as possible.

Furthermore, G.Loukaides said that “because AKEL has always taken a consistent stand with regards the danger posed by this fascist neo-Nazi formation, AKEL was warning before fascism emerged from the snake’s egg”, adding that “AKEL’s consistency was also expressed when we were discussing the allocation of the Presidencies of Parliamentary Committees, where there was no legal obligation whatsoever for parties with a parliamentary group to grant such Presidencies to ELAM”.

The AKEL Parliamentary Representative said that AKEL had said that it would “facilitate the granting of Committee Presidencies to both EDEK and the Democratic Party, but we are not prepared to agree to the granting of Presidencies to ELAM”, adding that there was a certain party whose parliamentary representative, as he said, “was not only asking for a Committee Presidency to be granted to ELAM, as well as for the other smaller parties too, but was asking for the first time in decades, as well as for the other smaller parties, for ELAM to participate in the committee of committees, namely the Selection Committee”.

G.Loukaides said that we must take a consistent stand when referring to and taking a position on ELAM and not change our position according to the circumstance.”

“Inconsistent contradictory positions do not benefit, but exacerbate and reinforce the possibility of ELAM having an even more enhanced role in Cypriot society, a dangerous role,” he concluded.