THE HAGUE – Belgium regards with “concern and regret” the electoral gains of
Greece’s “Nazi” party, Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on
Monday.
Reynders was commenting on the entrance of the Golden Dawn
far-right party into the Hellenic Parliament, after winning 7 percent of the
vote in Greece’s general election on Sunday.
Belgium chairs the
intergovernmental Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust
Education.
In an interview with Joods Actueel, Belgium’s leading Jewish
publication, Reynders said the party’s electoral success was a cause for
concern. “This is not just a rightist party – it’s actually a Nazi party,” he
said.
Reynders spoke on Monday as a guest of Flanders’s Forum of Jewish
Organizations, at a ceremony commemorating the deportation of Antwerp’s Jews to
Auschwitz.
“Populist parties often do well in times of crisis,” he
said. “But this party, which uses such obvious references to the Nazis,
is very problematic.”
The Golden Dawn party scored 0.29% of the vote in
the last election in 2009.
The Golden Dawn Party describes itself as
“patriotic” and “nationalist.” It opposes immigration and authorities believe
its activists regularly assault immigrants at random. Party spokesmen deny it is
neo-Nazi or racist.
The party logo has been likened to a swastika,
although officials maintain it is the ancient Greek meander symbol.
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