September 2013 – Page 2 – GREEK WORLD MEDIA

Golden Dawn MP Christos Pappas surrenders to Greek police

Source: theguardian

Far-right party’s parliamentary spokesman walks into police headquarters 24 hours after arrests of key members

Christos Pappas

Golden Dawn’s Christos Pappas is escorted by masked officers to the prosecutor’s office in Athens on Sunday. Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

A Greek MP said to be the second in command of the far-right Golden Dawn party has surrendered after authorities arrested the organisation’s leader and other key members on charges of running a criminal gang.

Christos Pappas, the party’s parliamentary spokesman and unrepentant holder of many of its most hardline views, handed himself over to police more than 24 hours after an unprecedented crackdown on the neo-fascist group began.

Appearing at Athens’s central police headquarters in a taxi, the politician insisted the vehemently anti-immigrant party would “survive … the political persecution” it was being subjected to.

“I present myself voluntarily. I have nothing to hide, nothing to fear,” he told reporters waiting outside the building where five other Golden Dawn MPs, including Nikos Michaloliakos, its leader, were taken into custody on Saturday. “The truth will shine. Nationalism will win. We will wage a non-stop political struggle and we will survive.”

Like other members who appeared in court in handcuffs hours after their arrest, Pappas faces charges of murder, money laundering, extortion and intent to commit crimes.

His surrender came as officials in Europe, human rights groups, Jewish organisations and diaspora Greeks applauded the crackdown – the first to be conducted against sitting MPs since the collapse of military rule in 1974. Golden Dawn is often seen as Europe’s most violent political group and has been blamed for more than 300 attacks on immigrants in the three years since Greece plunged into economic crisis.

“We praise the Greek government for taking bold measures to bring the leaders of Golden Dawn to account for their actions and to safeguard Greece’s democracy,” said Anthony Kouzounis, the head of Ahepa, an association representing ethnic Greeks in the US, the world’s biggest diaspora community.

“The party’s extremist principles and paramilitary-like tactics perpetrated upon any individuals of a free, democratic society are alarming and are a true threat to Greece’s democracy.”

Emboldened by its meteoric rise in the polls, the party had begun to look abroad, establishing branches in the US, Canada and Australia in the hope that it could capitalise on the anger of diaspora Greeks over the financial meltdown.

Before this month’s murder of a Greek musician by a Golden Dawn supporter spurred the government into finally taking action, the organisation was scoring as much as 15% in opinion polls – more than double its vote when it took seats in Athens on the back of economic despair for the first time in June last year.

With six deputies now in custody, pending trial, the party’s executive power has been severely diminished and its parliamentary presence cut by a third. Byelections are expected to take place to replace the deputies.

As he was being hauled before the court, Michaloliakos shouted: “Golden Dawn will never die.”

But without its leader, the party seems rudderless. Tellingly, only a few hundred sympathisers heeded a call for support following the arrests, gathering outside police headquarters as the politicians were brought in.

The government of prime minister Antonis Samaras has pledged that the inquiry will continue. Arrest warrants have been issued for another 11 Golden Dawn members who are still at large.

The 10 Richest States In America: 24/7 Wall St.

Source: Huffington

Last year, household income remained effectively unchanged, according to data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is despite the fact that the U.S. added nearly 2.2 million jobs in 2012.

“The big story is that everything was stagnant over the year” said Economic Policy Institute’s Elise Gould. “We’re stagnant, and continue to be in a bad place.”

While the economy continues to struggle, residents in the wealthiest states continue to make far more than in the poorest. In 2012, Maryland remained the richest state in the country, with a median household income of $71,221. Mississippi was again the poorest, with an income of $37,095 — nearly half that of Maryland’s.

Despite the addition of jobs nationwide, median incomes remained stagnant in most states and were still generally below their 2008 levels, adjusted for inflation. Sheldon Danziger, president of the Russell Sage Foundation, explained that this has been the nature of the recovery. “We have an economy that continues to grow, with most of the gains going to the economic elite. I don’t see any bright prospects for the median worker, much less the poor.”

States with lower median incomes generally had much higher rates of poverty than the national rate. All of the 10 states with the lowest median income in 2012 also had among the highest poverty rates in the country. While 15.9% of Americans fell below the poverty line in 2012, nearly one in four Mississippians did.

Employment is one of the biggest factors affecting income. In some states with lower unemployment, a higher share of the households had steady income, which bolsters the state’s median. In many of the highest-income states, like New Hampshire, Minnesota and Hawaii, unemployment in 2012 was less than 6%, compared to a national rate of 8.1%.

Elise Gould, Director of Health Policy for Economic Policy Institute, explained that unemployment rates can have a significant effect on a state’s household income. “When we’re talking about average families and poor families, the vast majority of income comes from wages. So it’s about jobs.” Gould cautioned, however, that unemployment rates do not tell the full story.

Unemployment rates, for example, ignore those people who have given up looking for work or accept part-time work. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while 8.1% of American workers were unemployed in 2012, 14.7% were underemployed, meaning they wanted to work full time but could not. This was an increase from roughly 10% in 2008.

The types of jobs available in each state also affect income. A review of Census Bureau industry composition data shows that people in most of the states with a higher median income were often more likely to be employed in information, finance, professional and other positions that tend to pay higher salaries. Maryland, the wealthiest state in the country, had the highest percentage of workers in professional, scientific and management positions.

At the same time, many of the low-income states had smaller percentages of these professional occupations and higher rates of employment in retail, manufacturing and transportation. The high proportion of manufacturing jobs in low-income states might be surprising, but, explained Danziger, the makeup of the manufacturing industry in the country has changed.

“There’s a difference between unionized auto company workers and non-unionized parts suppliers,” Danziger said. “Even when manufacturers haven’t cut wages, they are adopting labor-saving technological change.”

To identify the states with the highest and lowest median household income, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed state data on income from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey (ACS). Based on Census treatment, median household income for all years is adjusted for inflation. We also reviewed unemployment data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2012, as well as 2012 ACS data on health insurance coverage, employment and poverty.

Ancient Greek Site Threatened Amid Celebration

Source: nemeangames

While world leaders and top athletes lit the Olympic flame with pageantry drawn from antiquity, another important ancient site of athletic prowess sat overlooked and endangered.

Some 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Ancient Olympia where the flame lighting for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi went off without a hitch Sunday, the Nemea stadium and its humbler games are in danger of closing to the public because of crisis-hit Greece’s harsh budget cuts, according to a renowned American archaeologist who led excavations there for decades.

Stephen G. Miller, professor emeritus of classical archaeology at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived at Nemea in 1973, when the ancient site still lay buried beneath a highway and vineyards used by raisin farmers. Excavations there unearthed the temple and stadium, one of the four major sites where Ancient Greek games were held: Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia and Nemea.

The 71-year-old has held a revival of the Nemean games every four years since 1996, a lower-key, more egalitarian affair than the Olympics, in which athletes sporting white tunics engage in a no-prize competition with a relatively small but dedicated following.

“The idea is that anyone can feel like an ancient Greek athlete for 10 minutes,” he said, in a midweek interview at Nemea, standing at the stadium’s entrance tunnel, where graffiti from ancient athletes is still visible. “The thing I’m worried about is that this place is going to have to be closed.”

Seven of the site’s 10-member staff at Nemea have not have their contracts renewed. If they lose their final challenge in court next month, Miller said, the site will close. Staff shortages last year forced Nemea to close on weekends for 10 weeks.

“It’s sad for me that it’s come to this. There should be people crawling all over this place.”

Greece is suffering through its sixth year of recession, a financial crisis that has seen a surge in unemployment and poverty. Forced to make deeper cuts, the government has launched a program of mass state job cuts and involuntary transfers that have already made an impact on services from Athens to rural Greece.

Nemea, near the southern city of Corinth, is steeped in ancient history. The 2,300-year-old Temple of Zeus stands next to the ancient track and a museum built at the site.

“The treasure of Greece is its antiquities and the young archaeologists trained to look after those antiquities. Instead of making the investments that would have yielded archaeology an income producing venture, it’s always been shoved off to the side,” Miller said. “There’s no hotel here, no restaurant, no shop.”

Miller, who lives in Nemea and is popular in the nearby town, greets friends in accented but precise Greek. The road leading to the ancient site at Nemea has his name on it.

“My life’s work is right here,” he said. “For me, this is very personal.”

Σύλληψη τριών ατόμων έξω από τα γραφεία της Χρυσής Αυγής στη Λούτσα

Τρία άτομα συνελήφθησαν κοντά στα γραφεία της Χρυσής Αυγής στη Λούτσα λίγο πριν τα μεσάνυχτα του Σαββάτου.

Σύμφωνα με την Αστυνομία, τα τρία άτομα, Έλληνες ηλικίας 29, 40 και 43 ετών, βρέθηκαν να μεταφέρουν με αυτοκίνητο 9 κράνη, 70 κοντάρια εκ των οποίων μερικά με σημαίες, καθώς και 11 ασπίδες.

Στην κατοχή ενός εκ των συλληφθέντων βρέθηκε και ένα πτυσσόμενο μεταλλικό κλομπ.

Greece Cracks Down on Far-Right Party With Arrests of Lawmakers

ATHENS — The counterterrorism police conducted an unprecedented crackdown on Greece’s neo-facist Golden Dawn party early Saturday morning, arresting four members of Parliament, including the head of the organization, and ten party officials. A search was under way for the arrest of two more lawmakers and more than twenty party members.
Related

Greek Killing Raises Fears of Extremism (September 20, 2013)

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It is the first time that members of political parties and Parliament members have been arrested in Greece since the fall of a military junta in 1974.

Less than two weeks after a man who said he had ties to the party murdered an anti-fascist Greek musician, igniting an uproar throughout Greece, Nikos Mihaloliakos, Golden Dawn’s leader and a member of Parliament, was taken into custody Saturday morning on charges of forming a criminal organization. The other arrests followed. The immunity usually enjoyed by Greek members of Parliament is automatically lifted in the case of felonies. For lesser charges, a vote has to be held in Parliament. But the immunity of Greek members of Parliament can only be lifted by a vote by the Parliament.

Ilias Kasidiaris, another Parliament member who is the party’s chief spokesman, was among those arrested early Saturday, along with two other lawmakers, Ilias Panagiotaros and Yiannis Lagos. Also included in the sweep was Giorgios Patelis, head of the party’s local chapter in Nikaia, a gritty Athens suburb that is one of Golden Dawn’s biggest strongholds.

The arrests are part of a rapidly widening campaign by the government to clamp down on what it says is a rising tide of extremism in Greece, fueled by a devastating economic crisis. In addition, the government last week opened an investigation into whether sympathizers or members of the group — one of the most violent rightist organizations in Europe — have infiltrated Greek police forces and the armed forces.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who heads the right-leaning New Democracy party, has said he is determined to curb the influence of Golden Dawn, a group whose standing had climbed in opinion polls in the last year and which now has 18 of its members in Parliament. Since the murder a week and a half ago of Pavlos Fyssas, a 34-year-old rapper whose lyrics protested the rise of neo-fascism in the country, Golden Dawn’s standing in polls has slid. But it is still the third most popular party in Greece, behind New Democracy and Syriza, the leftist party headed by a political maverick, Alexis Tsipras.

The crackdown is not without risks.

“If they are prosecuted, it might have a boomerang effect among Golden Dawn’s followers and voters,” Nikos Demertzis, a professor of political sociology at the University of Athens, said in an interview earlier this week. “If you alienate them totally from the political system, alleging that everyone who has voted for Golden Dawn or who likes them should be stigmatized, it may marginalize politically thousands of people,” he said.

Earlier this week, Mr. Mihaloliakos suggested that all 18 Golden Dawn members might resign from Parliament en masse, a move that could force a series of elections in areas where the party now holds seats. A government spokesman said such a move would not force a new round of general elections, although the prospect of new elections for those seats could undermine political stability in Greece at a time when Mr. Samaras is negotiating with the country’s creditors for continued financial aid as part of two multibillion euro bailouts is has already received — even as speculation of the possible need for a third bailout hangs over the talks.

Golden Dawn is by no means a new force in Greece, but its influence has grown in tandem with Greece’s devastating economic hardship. Armed with promises to restore jobs and order, its members espouse nationalistic and xenophobic slogans, appealing to marginalized Greeks in rough areas populated by a rising tide of unemployed immigrants, mostly from Pakistan and North Africa.

Human rights groups say Golden Dawn, whose members perform Nazi salutes at rallies and meetings, has systematically terrorized immigrants, while the police looked the other way. The aggressive acts include the beating of immigrants with clubs and shields bearing swastikalike symbols, or with wooden poles draped in the Greek flag.

in a message sent by cellphone to an unspecified number of Greeks, including reporters, Golden Dawn called for its backers to “support our moral and just struggle against the corrupt system,” appealing to them to rally outside the party’s offices in northeastern Athens and outside the Athens police headquarters near the city center where the members of Parliament and officials were being detained.

Tensions have also risen recently between Golden Dawn and leftist groups. This month, thousands of Greeks protested in Athens after about 50 Golden Dawn members, armed with bats and crowbars, attacked members of the Communist Party, leaving nine people hospitalized with serious injuries.

The police said arrests would continue throughout the day.

Συλλήψεις βουλευτών της Χρυσής Αυγής: Όλες οι εξελίξεις

Μετά από έρευνα της εισαγγελίας και της αντιτρομοκρατικής υπηρεσίας η Χρυσή Αυγή χαρακτηρίστηκε ως εγκληματική οργάνωση. Θα γίνουν και άλλες συλλήψεις εντός της ημέρας.

Αυτό σημειώνει ανώτατος αξιωματικός της αστυνομίας, αναφερόμενος στην συλλήψεις του γενικού γραμματέα της Χρυσής Αυγής, Νίκου Μιχαλολιάκου, του βουλευτή του κόμματος, Ηλία Κασιδιάρη και του αρχηγού της τοπικής οργάνωσης της Νίκαιας, Γιώργου Πατέλη.

Στις 9:45 το πρωί, κατέφθασε στην Γενική Αστυνομική Διεύθυνση ο Ηλίας Παναγιώταρος όπου παραδόθηκε αυτοβούλως, ενώ λίγο αργότερα έφθασαν στην ΓΑΔΑ ο Αρτέμης Ματθαιόπουλος και ο Γιώργος Γερμενής για τους οποίους όμως δεν έχει ξεκαθαριστεί αν έχει εκδοθεί ένταλμα σύλληψης τους. Επιπλέον έχουν συλληφθεί και εννέα μέλη του κόμματος.

Επιπλέον, γύρω στις 10:10 το πρωί, οι άντρες της ΕΛ.ΑΣ. πέρασαν χειροπέδες και στον βουλευτή της Χ.Α. Γιάννη Λαγό.

Στελέχη της ΕΛ.ΑΣ. εξηγούν ότι θα ακολουθήσουν τουλάχιστον και άλλες συλλήψεις εκ των οποίων οι δύο αφορούν στους Χρήστο Παππά και Νίκο Μίχο, ενώ στο στόχαστρο των Αρχών έχουν μπει συνολικά πάνω από 30 άτομα.

Η επιχείρηση της αστυνομίας ξεκίνησε μετά από σύσκεψη που πραγματοποιήθηκε το βράδυ της Παρασκευής. Η αντιτρομοκρατική υπηρεσία παρενέβη ύστερα από την ενεργοποίηση της παραγγελίας της Εισαγγελίας ότι η Χρυσή Αυγή λειτουργεί ως εγκληματική οργάνωση.

Οι συλλήψεις έγιναν με εντολή αντεισαγγελέα του Αρείου Πάγου μετά τη μελέτη του πορίσματος του αντεισαγγελέα κ. Χ. Βουρλιώτη.

Όλοι οι συλληφθέντες μεταφέρονται στον 12ο όροφο της Γ.Α.Δ.Α. όπου θα ανακριθούν από την αντιτρομοκρατική.

Δικαστικές πηγές υποστηρίζουν ότι οι συλλήψεις βασίζονται στις 32 δικογραφίες που έχουν αποσταλεί στον Άρειο Πάγο, καθώς και σε καταθέσεις μαρτύρων.

Το πόρισμα του εισαγγελέα

Εννέα σελίδες είναι το πόρισμα του Εισαγγελέα με βάση το οποίο εκδόθηκαν τα εντάλματα σύλληψης για τα στελέχη και τους βουλευτές της Χρυσής Αυγής, αλλά και του αρχηγού Νίκου Μιχαλολιάκου.

Το πόρισμα περιγράφει με κάθε λεπτομέρεια την οργάνωση της Χρυσής Αυγής, την δομή και την ιεραρχία, δίνοντας διεισδυτικό ρόλο στον Νίκο Μιχαλολιάκο.

Μάλιστα, με βάση το πόρισμα δεν χρειάζεται να υπάρχει κάποιο αδίκημα για να προβούν οι Αρχές στη σύλληψη των μελών, καθώς αρκεί και μόνο η συμμετοχή στην εγκληματική οργάνωση.

Επιπλέον, στο πόρισμα του εισαγγελέα αναφέρεται ότι θα γίνουν έρευνες και για ξέπλυμα βρώμικου χρήματος κάτι που σημαίνει ότι άμεσα θα ανοίξουν και τραπεζικοί λογαριασμοί στελεχών και βουλευτών.

Δηλώσεις Παναγιώταρου έξω από τη ΓΑΔΑ
Σε δηλώσεις του έξω από τη ΓΑΔΑ ο βουλευτής της Χ.Α. Ηλίας Παναγιώταρος είπε στους δημοσιογράφους: «H κοινωνία θα τους κρίνει όλους. Δεν γίνεται να συλλαμβάνουν τον αρχηγό της Χρυσής Αυγής, σε μία Ελλάδα του μνημονίου και των 3.000 αυτοκτονιών την ώρα μάλιστα που για σημαντικά εγκλήματα δεν τιμωρήθηκε κανείς»

Στο μεταξύ λίγο μετά την ανακοίνωση περί συλλήψεων στελεχών του κόμματος, μέλη της Χρυσής Αυγής άρχισαν να συγκεντρώνονται έξω από τη ΓΑΔΑ.

Συλλήψεις αστυνομικών

Σε συλλήψεις εν ενεργεία αστυνομικών, οι οποίοι φέρονται να είναι μέλη της Χρυσής Αυγής, έχουν προβεί οι άντρες της αντιτρομοκρατικής.

Σύμφωνα με πληροφορίες, οι άντρες της ΕΛ.ΑΣ. έχουν συλλάβει δύο συναδέλφους τους οι οποίοι, όπως προέκυψε, σχετίζονται με το κόμμα του κ. Μιχαλολιάκου.

Εγκληματική οργάνωση

Το zougla.gr είχε γράψει από χτες ότι ο πολιτικός και δικαστικός κλοιός γύρω από την Χρυσή Αυγή, έσφιγγε ασφυκτικά.

Καλά ενημερωμένες πηγές, μιλώντας στην ηλεκτρονική εφημερίδα, είχαν αναφέρει ότι, από τις μέχρι τώρα καταθέσεις προέκυπταν στοιχεία που οδηγούσαν σε βουλευτές της Χρυσής Αυγής και ενίσχυαν την προοπτική χαρακτηρισμού του συγκεκριμένου κόμματος σε εγκληματική οργάνωση.

Έτσι και έγινε…

Δεν χάνουν τη βουλευτική ιδιότητα

Σύμφωνα με όσα ορίζει ο Κανονισμός της Βουλής και το Σύνταγμα, οι βουλευτές της Χρυσής Αυγής διατηρούν τη βουλευτική ιδιότητα ακόμη και μετά τη σύλληψή.

Τη βουλευτική ιδιότητα χάνει βουλευτής μόνο αν υπάρξει απόφαση της δικαιοσύνης για στέρηση των πολιτικών του δικαιωμάτων.

«Κλείνει» η κάνουλα της κρατικής επιχορήγησης

Εν τω μεταξύ την Παρασκευή έγινε γνωστό πως σταματάει η κρατική επιχορήγηση στη Χρυσή Αυγή.
Ειδικότερα, η κυβέρνηση είναι έτοιμη να καταθέσει την προσεχή Δευτέρα στη Βουλή ειδική νομοθετική ρύθμιση, με την οποία αναστέλλεται η κρατική χρηματοδότηση κομμάτων όταν σε πρόσωπα που τα διοικούν, ή βουλευτές τους, έχει ασκηθεί δίωξη για κακουργηματικές πράξεις.

Η ρύθμιση, που αποφασίστηκε κατ’ εντολήν του πρωθυπουργού «φωτογραφίζει» τη Χρυσή Αυγή, που έχει ήδη λάβει κρατική χρηματοδότηση, συνολικού ύψους 830.000 ευρώ, ενώ έχουν εκταμιευτεί ακόμη 232.000 ευρώ.

Σύμφωνα με ανακοίνωση του υπουργείου Εσωτερικών, η απόφαση ελήφθη στο πλαίσιο της δέσμευσης της κυβέρνησης για την απόλυτη προάσπιση της νομιμότητας και την αντιμετώπιση των εγκληματικών οργανώσεων. Για το συγκεκριμένο ζήτημα πραγματοποιήθηκε την Παρασκευή σύσκεψη στο υπουργείο Εσωτερικών με τη συμμετοχή:
του υπουργού Εσωτερικών, Γιάννη Μιχελάκη
του υπουργού Δικαιοσύνης, Χαράλαμπου Αθανασίου
του υπουργού Δημόσιας Τάξης Νίκου Δένδια και
του κοινοβουλευτικού εκπροσώπου της ΝΔ, Μάκη Βορίδη.
Από την πλευρά του ο Νίκος Μιχαλολιάκος απείλησε με… πολιτικό σεισμό σε μια ύστατη προσπάθεια να προστατεύει το κόμμα του, κάνοντας λόγο για μαζική παραίτηση των βουλευτών του.

«Μπορούμε να πηγαίνουμε τη χώρα κάθε μήνα σε εκλογές προκειμένου να προστατεύσουμε το κόμμα μας», δήλωσε χαρακτηριστικά στο Βεργίνα Tv.

Παραίτηση βουλευτών της Χρυσής Αυγής από τις έδρες τους θα προκαλούσε επαναληπτικές εκλογές σε ορισμένες περιφέρειες.

Συλλήψεις βουλευτών της Χρυσής Αυγής: Όλες οι εξελίξεις

Επιπλέον, γύρω στις 10:10 το πρωί, οι άντρες της ΕΛ.ΑΣ. πέρασαν χειροπέδες και στον βουλευτή της Χ.Α. Γιάννη Λαγό.

Όλοι οι συλληφθέντες μεταφέρονται στον 12ο όροφο της Γ.Α.Δ.Α. όπου θα ανακριθούν από την αντιτρομοκρατική.

Το πόρισμα του εισαγγελέα

Συλλήψεις αστυνομικών

Εγκληματική οργάνωση

Έτσι και έγινε…

Δεν χάνουν τη βουλευτική ιδιότητα

«Κλείνει» η κάνουλα της κρατικής επιχορήγησης

Πανελλήνια θλίψη: Πέθανε η σπουδαία τραγουδίστρια Πόλυ Πάνου

Βαθιά θλίψη και μια δυνατή αίσθηση απώλειας προκαλεί η είδηση πως σήμερα έφυγε από το ζωή η κορυφαία Ελληνίδα τραγουδίστρια Πόλυ Πάνου σε ηλικία 73 ετών.

Στις αρχές του μήνα είχε γίνει γνωστό ότι νοσηλεύεται σε βαριά κατάσταση.

Η σπουδαία φωνή του ελληνικού πενταγράμμου δεν άντεξε και σίγησε σήμερα.

Σχετική ανακοίνωση εξέδωσε το νοσοκομείο Υγεία όπου νοσηλευόταν δίνοντας μάχη με τον καρκίνο.

Η σορός της Πόλυς Πάνου θα τεθεί σε λαϊκό προσκύνημα από τις 09.30 της Δευτέρας στο παρεκκλήσι του Α΄Νεκροταφείου ενώ στις 15:00, στην εκκλησία του ίδιου χώρου θα ψαλεί η νεκρώσιμος ακολουθία.

Στη συνέχεια η σορός θα μεταφερθεί στο Νεκροταφείο του Κόκκινου Μύλου όπου και θα ταφεί σε οικογενειακό τάφο.

Golden Dawn threat to quit creates doubt

Source: Ekathimerini

Greece may face the possibility of snap elections if Golden Dawn MPs resign en masse from Parliament, an option that party leader Nikos Michaloliakos refused to discount on Thursday.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras may face the choice of having to choose between a series of by-elections or going to a national ballot if the far-right party’s 18 lawmakers quit their seats.

There would be a number of constitutional peculiarities involved if Golden Dawn walks out. Firstly, one of its MPs is from a state list, which means he has not been elected directly but has been awarded a seat in Parliament based on his party’s share of the national vote. Opinion is split on whether ballots would have to be held around the country to decide which party would gain this seat.

There would also have to be by-elections to replace the remaining MPs and Samaras fears this might be destabilizing for the country.

SYRIZA indicated on Thursday that it would aim to increase its presence in Parliament if by-elections are held and then push for general elections. “SYRIZA will turn these elections into a referendum on Nazism and the [EU-IMF] memorandum and into a stepping stone so that there can be national elections and a new parliamentary majority,” said leftist MP Dimitris Papadimoulis.

Michaloliakos refused to say if his party would quit but stressed that Golden Dawn could not be held responsible for the “political turmoil” that would follow such a move.

The predicament for Samaras came as the government was put on alert by a statement issued by the Association of Special Forces Reservists (KEED) on Wednesday. The group called for the government to resign and be replaced by a caretaker administration that would suspend any commitments Greece had under its bailout terms. The tone of the statement suggested a direct intervention in the democratic process but KEED issued a statement Thursday denying that it had any intention of encouraging a coup.

Nevertheless, the statement prompted an emergency meeting of ministry and judicial officials at the Supreme Court. Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou described the issue as “troubling” but said that “the overwhelming majority of men in the armed forces are dedicated to democracy.”