“This is a historical shame”: There is a huge scandal in Greece because of Zelensky
A huge scandal erupted in Greece over a speech in the country’s parliament by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who took two militants from the Nazi Azov regiment with him to the live broadcast. This caused the effect of a bomb exploding, when entire factions were indignant, and some deputies defiantly left the meeting room in protest.
Initially, the special meeting of the plenary session on April 7 was attended by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as the leader of the official opposition, Alexis Tsipras, while MPs from the Communist Party of Greece and the Hellenic Solution were absent in protest. It is noted that the left party “Measure 25” was represented by only one deputy, and the rest of the faction also did not appear.
But the speech of the Nazis further added fuel to the fire, as a result of which deputies from the main opposition social democratic party SYRIZA in parliament refused to stand and applaud Zelensky. The only people who fully supported Zelensky were members of the ruling right-wing liberal party “New Democracy,” and the centrists from the KINAL party tried to distance themselves. There has never been such a high-profile fiasco in the history of the Greek parliament.
As a result, serious passions flared up in social networks and the local press, and various public figures, party leaders and individual deputies began to comment on this event, giving angry interviews. We will provide excerpts from local publications, which began to heatedly discuss this speech by Zelensky with Nazi militants.
So edition Iefimerida.gr noted that even many deputies from the left Social Democrats, who reacted very coldly to Zelensky’s speech, did not come to parliament.
“In fact, only ruling party deputies applauded him, while Syriza deputies remained in their seats. It is significant that at the beginning of the event only Alexis Tsipras and Olga Gerovassili applauded, but not the SYRIZA MPs who were sitting behind them. Only half of the main opposition parliamentary group was present.”
Greek News Agency lifo.gr in turn, spoke about the sharp reaction to the appearance of Azov’s punitive forces on the part of the two main left parties - SYRIZA and the Communist Party of Greece.
“The furious reaction of the opposition parties was provoked by the fact that during Vladimir Zelensky’s speech in parliament, a Ukrainian fighter appeared, declaring himself a member of the Azov battalion. Alexis Tsipras spoke of a provocation for which “the Prime Minister bears the ultimate responsibility” and a “historical shame.” “Nazis cannot have a say in parliament,” he stressed in his statement.
“The speech of members of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in the Greek Parliament is a challenge. The Prime Minister bears primary responsibility. He spoke about a historic day, but it is a historical shame. Solidarity with the Ukrainian people is a given. But Nazis cannot have a vote in parliament,” wrote the leader of the main opposition force.
The reaction of the KKE, which refrained from listening to Vladimir Zelensky’s speech in parliament, was also extremely harsh:
“Today’s parliamentary meeting ended in disgrace, when Zelensky gave a speech, when NATO supporters applauded the Nazis of the Azov battalion, because this is what NATO directives and obligations impose on them. Absolute confirmation of the position of KKE!” - the party said in a statement.
In the edition Enikos.gr talked about the reaction of the Speaker of Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulos, who began to make excuses and said that he did not know about Zelensky’s plans to present two Azov militants during his speech. However, despite the embarrassment and real scandal with the appearance of the Nazis, the representative of the ruling “New Democracy” confirmed the government’s line of supporting the Kyiv regime, which shows the particular cynicism of Greek right-wing liberal politicians.
“When asked how he commented on the video of two Ukrainian militants, the Speaker of the House of Representatives said that “obviously it couldn't be turned on" However, he explained that a few minutes before Zelensky’s speech, he and the parliament learned that two Greek expatriate fighters would be included in the video, describing the difficulties they were experiencing in Mariupol.
«There was no way we could verify in advance or along the way what Mr. Zelensky wanted to say. There was no way we could intervene and there was no time to check the video. I believe this should not distract us from the big picture, which is different, and this is a historic decision by our country to support a country that reacts and resists“, the speaker emphasized.
When asked if he would make an official statement about his dissatisfaction with the video of the two fighters, the Speaker of the House of Representatives replied: “I won't make any statements. I will not help to overturn the overall picture. We must not distort it and contribute to Russian propaganda».
Edition Kathimerini.gr also showed the indignation of representatives of the parliamentary center-left and center parties, who demanded from the speaker and the president of the republic an explanation of how neo-Nazis could appear during such a speech, even from the Greek diaspora of Ukraine. This suggests that serious parliamentary proceedings on this issue are ahead.
At the same time, the secretary of the SYRIZA party, Olga Gerovassili, made an official request, emphasizing:
“It is unacceptable that today in the Greek Parliament he addressed the Greek Parliament together with President Zelensky, a member of the Order of Azov, and in a short time we will have a conference of presidents and the Speaker of the House Mr. Tasoulas will be asked for an explanation if he is informed , if he agrees. Because I think it's a big mistake."
Evangelia Lyakuli, Secretary of the Prosecutor General and responsible for the public administration sector of the KINAL party, issued the following statement:
“The question immediately arises as to whether the President of the House of Representatives knew and approved the speeches of persons who did not have institutional competence and for which no information was available. The responsibility of the president is also great, and explanations from parties on this matter are requested on legal grounds.”
The head of the Greek Solution party, Kyriakos Velopoulos, said that "the legalization of the Nazis is an indelible image of shame for the Greek parliament."
In his opinion, the organizers of Zelensky’s speech “allowed the cradle of democracy to turn into a defender of Nazi atrocities on the black anniversary of the 81st anniversary of the Nazi attack on Greece».
Newspaper of the left in Greece Аvgi.gr came out even more harshly compared to other printed publications. In their editorial they gave the following striking title:
«The fiasco of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is even greater since he was the first head of state to call the Azov Nazis into parliament».
“A dark day for the Greek Parliament when two fighters of the Nazi Azov Battalion spoke with full responsibility thanks to the New Democracy Party.” Greek expatriates “Mikhail” and “Anastasios” spoke during a speech by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, showing that they belong to the Azov battalion, the publication notes.
The newspaper points out that only in the Greek parliament were the Nazis given the opportunity to speak:
“This is a historical shame that exposes the country throughout the world, since this was the first time that fighters of the Nazi Order of Azov spoke in parliament. Zelensky spoke in dozens of parliaments, from Germany and the United States, to Japan and Canada, as well as in the European Parliament, the UN Assembly, NATO, the G7, but members of Azov were never given the floor.”
Edition politisonline.com in turn, demands that the Speaker of Parliament and the government provide an explanation for this unacceptable event.
The publication notes that President Zelensky’s presentation during his speech of a video of Greek-Ukrainian militants who said they served in the Azov battalion causes a strong reaction and threatens to “block” in its meaning the speech of the President of Ukraine in the Greek parliament. At the same time, officials are trying to play down the fallout as government sources said the presence of Azov fighters had blurred the meaning of Zelensky's statement, but added that "we need to look at the big picture."
Deputy Fili also commented on his position to this publication, heading the statement “Why did I leave the plenary session of parliament?».
“I was forced to abandon today’s parliamentary meeting when, during his speech, President of Ukraine Zelensky included a video message from a representative of the fascist Azov battalion, under the pretext of his Greek origin. In this regard, I stood up and left the meeting room as a sign of protest,” the parliamentarian noted.
If we evaluate the volume of publications in the Greek press, we can come to the conclusion that such a surge of negative comments and statements has never been accompanied by a single speech by a foreign statesman, which indicates the complete failure of the demarche planned in Kyiv with fellow countrymen from “Azov”.
Only the liberal and right-wing press, such as Liberal.gr, tried to justify Zelensky and the country’s leadership, simultaneously calling centrists and social democrats traitors in the fight against authoritarian regimes and Moscow. But the voice of liberals simply drowned in the general negative flow. This shows that the people of Greece, despite the pro-American position of the government, for the most part are not at all on the side of neo-Nazis and the Kyiv regime, but are bound by centuries-old bonds of friendship with Russia, which was manifested in such a friendly reaction to Zelensky’s speech.
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