Ilias Kasidiaris (candidate for Golden Dawn/Chryssi Avgi, and party press spokesman) hit Liana Kanelli (KKE candidate) in the face (he called her a "Palio Kommuni"), after throwing a glass of water at SYRIZA candidate Rena Dourou during the course of a studio panel discussion on ANT1 TV programme this morning.
The video from Antenna
Behind the scenes, enikos.gr
Watch ANT1 Web TV
This shocking display has been widely condemned in Greece.
See also: Logios Hermes, who has some of the recording, and the statement from Kasidiaris claiming that Kanelli 'hit him first' (possibly a swipe with a newspaper, after the throwing of the water?).
Logios Hermes (2)
and
enikos.gr, quoting Rena Dourou, after the attack: "We don't just have to save our economy, but our democracy too"- "Δεν έχουμε να σώσουμε μόνο την οικονομία, αλλά και τη Δημοκρατία μας"
Hellas Frappe on the incident
Update from Kathimerini: The response from "Golden Dawn" (in Greek)
More on the studio incident (in English)
The BBC report
Wikipedia Entry on Liana Kanelli
Strange twists and turns (update)
As Orwell said of the authoritarian impulse "imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever" or as Priestly said of the possible success of Nazism "Imagine every playground bully being in charge" People who support Golden Dawn and their equivalent are uninterested in ideas or thought. Hitler famously said "Education's not good for my boys". Hence the preference for force starting with the impulse to hit people who argue with you. I can imagine that if you experience the world as unyielding to reason and its effects on you as wholly arbitrary and unpredictable, as happens to the already poor in hard times, this behaviour is horribly understandable. What guts you need to stay homo sapiens amid despair.
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