Post date: Jun 10, 2012 9:36:43 PM
ATHENS, GREECE (JUNE 10 2012)(REUTERS) - A far-right Greek politician, wanted by police for assaulting two opponents on live television, appeared in public on Sunday (June 10) after two days in hiding.
A Greek far-right politician, wanted by police for slapping a female politician during a live TV show, threatens to sue his political opponents.
Ilias Kasidiaris, spokesman for the Gold Dawn party, slapped Communist Party deputy Liana Kanelli three times and threw water at Rena Dourou of the leftist SYRIZA party, during a live TV election debate.Addressing supporters on Sunday, he said his actions had served as a wake-up call to the nation.
"Never before has a simple slap succeeded in waking up thousands so that they can finally understand how we should defend ourselves against all those that have been degrading the people and the nation," he told a crowd of cheering party members.
He then threatened to sue the television station for defamation, as well as his victims, after accusing them of provoking the attack.
"I will finally go to the prosecutor with my lawyer, and practice my legal right and a lawsuit will be filed against Ms. Kanelli who dared to insult me on air, and attack me, and Ms. Dourou will be sued, for defamation, because it is not possible during a pre-election period for someone to say that a party will push the country backwards 500 years - look who's talking," Kasidiaris said.
The politician said he had not appeared for two days because the courts were closed and he was waiting for them to open on Monday to file the lawsuits.
Kasidiaris said he had been set up during the programme in order to provoke him.
"The previous night I was speaking with our leader and he said to me: 'be careful because it looks like they will try to set you up'. I told him I realised that but we had nothing to fear from all of them. Where things got out of control was when the Communist Party deputy made a move and hit me. It was not predictable, I never expected that on a live TV show that I would be hit in the face. What I did was what millions of Greeks would have done: when they hit you in the face, you take a stance of self defence and defend yourself," he said.
Golden Dawn, a far-right, anti-immigrant party whose symbol resembles a Nazi swastika, won seven percent of the vote in an inconclusive May election and entered parliament for the first time, pledging to stand up for Greeks suffering in the crisis.
However, the party's image has been severely dented by continuous replays of footage of the 31-year-old Kasidiaris, a former army commando, striking the middle-aged Communist deputy Liana Kanelli.