Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said Ilias Kasidiaris, the far-right politician recently released from prison, expresses Nazi views, and that it will fall to Greece's Supreme Court, the Areios Pagos, to decide whether he can stand as a candidate. Marinakis made the comments during an interview on the television channel Action24, addressing the political debate that has opened since Kasidiaris's release.
Marinakis said the legislative discussion ultimately rests with the justice system, since it is the courts that issue rulings. But he said there was something that should not be ignored: that there are people who listen to the views of a man who has expressed Nazi ideas.
He said politicians had a responsibility to explain to the public that political extremes have not solved any of Greece's problems and have not proposed anything to improve citizens' lives. He said it was necessary to explain to young people that their lives would not improve through extreme views.
Kasidiaris is a former leader of the far-right Golden Dawn party, which Greek courts declared a criminal organization in 2020, convicting several of its leading figures, including Kasidiaris, of directing it.
Marinakis said two separate legal questions were involved: whether a convicted person can stand as a candidate themselves, and whether a party can have a front man serving as its formal or effective leader.
On the first point, he said a change made under the SYRIZA government's 2019 penal code had abolished the additional penalty of stripping political rights from convicted people. He said the current government had since taken two steps: raising the maximum penalty for such serious offenses, and tying the loss of political rights to the constitution, so that once a conviction becomes final and irrevocable, the person is barred from standing as a candidate for the length of the sentence.
On the second point, he said the Areios Pagos could rule on cases where a party's formal or actual leader has been convicted of certain offenses, including directing a criminal organization, and could then exclude that person from the electoral process for the period set by the nominal sentence under the law. He said the government had already introduced legislation giving the Areios Pagos the power to approve or reject such exclusions.
Unemployment Benefit Remarks
Asked about the political reaction to his earlier remarks on shortening the duration of unemployment benefits, Marinakis said he stood by what he had said.
He described the proposal as a personal position that he said had been distorted, adding that it did not reflect government policy. He noted the remarks had come during a personal interview, not in a briefing to journalists or an interview setting out government positions.
He said he had made the same point in another interview, in which he clarified he was referring to specific cases, and that a person who spoke with courage and honesty was simply showing their genuine views.
He said attention should instead focus on what he called the hypocrisy of the party led by Alexis Tsipras, Greece's former prime minister and former SYRIZA leader. Marinakis said Tsipras had visited Greece's Public Employment Service, DYPA, in order to divert attention from the government's program announced at the Thessaloniki International Fair. He said Tsipras had expressed a similar position during the pandemic, and accused him of discarding, like squeezed lemon peels, the ministers and policies of his own past government while criticizing a younger politician over personal views he had expressed.
Energy Costs and Winter Support
On the energy crisis and the difficult winter expected because of rising oil prices, Marinakis said the government had extended the support measures introduced in August into September as well. He said the question of whether further assistance would be needed remained open.
He said that, based on the country's fiscal capacity for 2026, the government would not leave society without help, though he could not discuss specific measures at this stage since any decision would depend on that fiscal capacity. He accused the wider political system of making empty promises, and said the government had a total margin of about 200 million euros for 2026, adding that every measure it promised had to be costed first.
Criticism of PASOK
Asked about PASOK and a statement by party official Panas suggesting alignment with Tsipras's party, Marinakis said PASOK was driven by political small-mindedness.
He said PASOK's party congress had decided that New Democracy was the only party it could not work with, while in recent days PASOK and Tsipras's party had made competing promises to voters in the towns of Arta and Ioannina over public sector bonuses. He said the two parties had made empty promises and had nearly driven the country onto the rocks. He described Panas's comments as a natural consequence of recent developments, adding that the government's approach was to find the funding before announcing measures, unlike its rivals.
He said elections ultimately judge every party, and that a party sitting in third place and seeking to become first was prone to political small-mindedness. He said that while a serious PASOK could be a partner for dialogue, the government could not co-govern with the PASOK led by Nikos Androulakis.
