Plans by the extreme right-wing party Golden Dawn to set up branches in Australia have been met with opposition this week by state and federal politicians.
Comments made by Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros to the ABC last month, stated that “three or four offices are going to be formed” in Australia.
Golden Dawn campaigned on an anti-immigration platform and won 21 seats in the May 6 election.
Shortly after, its leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos is reported to have told Greece’s Mega TV that gas chambers and ovens were not used in Nazi concentration camps.
Nicholas Kotsiras, the Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affair and Citizenship told Neos Kosmos that he “denounced the politics of racism and Holocaust denial by far-right extremist political parties like Golden Dawn”.
“There is absolutely no place in a successful multicultural Victoria for the reported views as those expressed by Golden Dawn spokespeople.
“These comments are not only a terrible insult to all Victorians, but also to the thousands of Greeks who fought and died defending their nation in WWII against the Nazis.”
The Minister’s comments were echoed by Victorian MP John Pandazopoulos.
“So called parties like Golden Dawn that model themselves on other neo-Nazi parties that are Holocaust deniers, intolerant and prejudiced, have no role in the diaspora.
“We are a diaspora because of the damage done by Nazis and their allies in Greece during WWII. We will never forget Nazi atrocities,” said the Labor member for Dandenong.
“Hellenes have been global pioneers in multiculturalism and tolerance. This should not be undermined by others who choose to bring their nasty politics to Australia.”
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Eric Abetz said the advent of any political movement with national socialist overtones was disturbing.
“Australians would do well to remind themselves that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance,” he said.