Golden Dawn's controversial video on prime minister's aide Baltakos, raises questions

by @inflammatory_

Government general secretary & prime minister’s close aide Takis Baltakos was secretly filmed describing to Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris the politics behind the clampdown on the party following the murder of Pavlos Fyssas. The transcripts release, forced Baltakos to resign and triggered drama in the corridors of the parliament as his son stormed inside the Golden Dawners’ office and attacked 3 lawmakers who allegedly failed to respond swiftly because -based on looks- they considered he was "one of them".

The video subtitled  by @kalergisK shows a friendly chat between the two men and Baltakos revealing that the allegations lacked sufficient evidence whilst the crackdown was an effort to tackle the switch of New Democracy voters to Golden Dawn. Frankly this is not news, but an old hot topic of analysis across alternative media sources back in September. However when it's allegedly admitted by a government official who is secretly recorded by a lawmaker, then the story enters a new chapter and raises a few questions: 

1. The video material appears to be legit but it's edited and 3 bits appear to be deleted (1:42' - 2:01' -2:28'). Was there any juicy info missed? If yes how would that affect the story?
2. If the video was recorded months ago why did Golden Dawn choose now to release it? 
3. Since Golden Dawn engages with such practices, there is room for assumptions about other video or audio materials available. In case thery actually are, how could these shape further developments ahead of elections and party members' trial? Should other public figures start worrying? Would this mark the beginning of a bluffing game or blackmailing and secret negotiations?
4. What lies ahead for a governemnt and above all for the people it is supposed to serve amid allegations of political interference at justice? 
5. The boundary between the far-right and the center right has become porous. For example the views and background of New Democracy's Kranidiotis, Voridis, Georgiadis or Plevris -to name a few- give strong evidence although they have made numerous efforts to play it down. Samaras also expelled Sotiris Hatzigakis for raising the issue back in 2011. Baltakos would bear even greater responsibility as the government's general secretary. Is this video a hint of collusion between people of New Democracy and Golden Dawn?

Video transcript in English can be found here 

#rbnews weekly bulletin 13-19 July 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 06-12 July 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews weekly show 06 July 2013 - The failure(s) of democracy in Greece

This week on the #rbnews international show, we asked lawyer Crystali Bourcha from the Movement for the Liberties and Democratic Rights of our Times (Greek acronym KEDDE) and journalist Mariniki Alevizopoulou from Unfollow Magazine to comment on the items that we included in our news bulletin of the week, which all seem to point towards the failure of democracy in Greece.

You can listen to the podcast and read the news bulletin after the jump.
The interviews were taken by phone. We apologize for the poor quality of the sound, especially in the case of our interview with Crystali Bourcha. For some unexplainable reason, the recording device was particularly intent to add parasites to her speech. 

#rbnews weekly bulletin 15-21 June 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 01-07 June 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek 

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 25-31 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 18-24 May 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

Amnesty International: the situation of human rights in Greece is deteriorating

Posted by @IrateGreek

The Greek chapter of Amnesty International organized a press conference to present the organization's annual report in front of the Aliens' Department in Athens today. This symbolic choice reflects Amnesty's key findings about the situation of human rights in Greece in 2013:

"Allegations of human rights abuses by police, including torture and excessive use of force continued throughout the year. Migrants and asylum seekers faced impediments in registering their asylum applications and were often detained in substandard conditions. Hate crime on the basis of race and ethnicity escalated dramatically."

"Anonymous" threats against the Muslim Association of Greece: "there will be blood"

Posted by @IrateGreek 

Our friends over at OmniaTV informed us through the hashtag #rbnews this morning that the Muslim Association of Greece received a letter of "anonymous" threats in Greek, English and Arabic. The quotation marks are due to the fact that, while unsigned, the writing paper features a page-wide logo of Golden dawn.

You can read for yourself the text of the letter after the jump.

The Muslim Association issued a press release in Greek and English, which we reproduce below.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 11-17 May 2013

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

#rbnews international show 18 May 2013: The letter, spirit and (lack of) enforcement of laws against racism in Greece

In this week's edition of the #rbnews international show, we continued our series about fascism and antifascism in Greece with an interview with @Chiguire79. @Chiguire79 is a lawyer and friend of radiobubble, and he explained to us the existing legal framework against racism and its shortcomings but also what we can expect from the new proposed bill against racism, which was finally brought to parliament yesterday.

You can read more about the proposed bill here. You can also find the rest of the shows in this series under the tag fascism and antifascism series.

And of course, you can listen to the podcast after the jump.

LGBT rights in Greece: one new case of State censorship and discrimination

Posted by @IrateGreek

The Athens Pride denounced on Thursday 16 May the decision by the National Council for Radio & Television to ban all Athens Pride publicity spots until the plenary session of the Council can discuss the appropriateness of their broadcast. The reason for given by the Council is the fact that the spots include a lesbian kiss.

This is the second such incident of censorship and discrimination against the LGBT community on Greek media in recent months. In October 2012, State TV channel NET had chosen to edit a kiss between two men out of a episode of Downton Abbey. After viewers reacted angrily on social media, most importantly on Twitter with the hashtag #puritaNET, the channel's director Kostas Spyropoulos had argued that the scene was cut because of the time of the broadcast and the "suitable for all" rating of the show, whereas late-night re-runs would include the scene - ignoring a 2003 ruling by the Council of State which condemned the Council's decision to censor a gay kiss scene on Mega TV channel.

14-year-old Ismael from Afghanistan, a victim of racist violence

Posted by @IrateGreek

14-year-old Ismael from Afghanistan was assaulted on Easter Monday in Athens by men in black who slashed his face with a broken bottle of beer. You can watch below his description of the attack in a video released by Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) and read the English translation of the dialogue. 

A timeline of fascist activity in Greece over the past year

On the occasion of the anniversary of the May 2012 elections, in which Greece's neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn entered parliament with 7% of the vote, @galaxyarchis prepared a timeline of the most important events related to the rise of fascism in modern Greece.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 04-10 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek

The text companion to this week's #rbnews international show is now online. You can read it after the jump.

6 May 2012 - 6 May 2013: one year from the Greek general elections of May 2012

By @galaxyarchis, translated from Greek by @anarresti, corrections by @IrateGreek

By Spyros Derveniotis
Translation: "Dirty immigrants, dying
where the Greeks eat!

Greece recently had two very important political anniversaries. More specifically, May 6th, 2013, marked three years since the adoption of the Memorandum which caused the greatest political rearrangements in the country's recent history, and one year since the 2012 general elections, when those dramatic changes were first expressed through the ballot box. Greek society is living in a period where political time is condensed to such a degree, that the changes occurring every month and every week can hardly be conceived by its collective consciousness. Since the May 2012 elections, which did not lead to the formation of a new government but to repeat elections a month later, the country's image and its political landscape kept changing at a rapid pace until today. In light of a greater tribute to the one year anniversary since last June's elections, when today's three-party coalition government came to power, we take a look at the facts and data which changed in this past year, starting from last May's elections.

Greece: a new, tougher law against racism?

By @IrateGreek

Greek media hailed on 07 May 2013 a proposed new bill against racism that was reportedly prepared by the Ministry of Justice and will be submitted to parliament after the Easter holiday. According to news reports (see e.g. here, here, here and here), the new bill proposes much harsher penalties for all forms of hate speech, with prison sentences ranging from 3 to 6 years and fines up to €20,000, while deprivation of political rights would be considered in certain cases. Discussion of this bill began in the public debate as it was announced that parliament would discuss lifting the immunity of Golden Dawn MP Germenis following his assault on Mayor of Athens Kaminis last week during a food distribution "for Greeks only" organized by Golden Dawn.

#rbnews weekly bulletin 27 April - 3 May 2013

Prepared by the #rbnews international team, translated by @IrateGreek

There was no #rbnews international show this week due to the orthodox Easter holiday, but the show's text companion is online anyway. You can read it after the jump.

Police disperse Golden Dawn food distribution for Greeks only in Athens

Greece's neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn had announced that it would conduct a food distribution for Greeks only ahead of orthodox Easter on Thursday 2 May in Syntagma square, Athens. This follows the pattern of all Golden Dawn socially-oriented actions, which aim at conspicuously excluding immigrants.

The Mayor of Athens, Giorgos Kaminis, stated on Wednesday that he would take all necessary measures to prevent the food distribution from happening on the grounds that it is a racist, discriminatory operation intended not to relieve people living in poverty but to provide Golden Dawn with a photo-op.