Ilias Kasidiaris, politician, member of parliament and one of the leaders of the Chrysi Avgi party banned in Greece, now imprisoned in the Domokos maximum security prison, has announced his candidacy for the post of mayor of Athens.
The convicted politician announced his decision on July 27, 2023 through his lawyer Vassiliki Pantazi. Declaring the decision to seek the votes of the Athenians in order to become, as he says, the mayor of the city, passing into the second round of local elections.
The desire of Ilias Kasidiaris to participate in political life has been manifest for a long time, as he unsuccessfully tried to get into parliament, although he was in a maximum security prison. To prevent Kasidiaris from entering parliament, the government introduced a special ban on the participation of convicted persons in elections, even in the first instance, which PASOK also voted for, although this decision was clearly contrary to the Greek constitution.
However, Kasidiaris himself, after being excluded from the electoral process by court decision, made a public statement in support of the Spartans political formation, which nevertheless entered parliament, despite numerous obstacles.
In the run-up to local elections, and given the prediction that Kasidiaris would run for mayor of Athens, which he himself had announced, the government was evaluating and exploring the possibilities that new legislation could provide to finally deprive the imprisoned member of X.A. opportunities to participate in local elections and in politics in general.
Opinions were expressed in close government circles on Sunday that the new provision should be more human-centric and tougher than the one applied in the parliamentary elections, but those opinions reportedly did not prevail in the end, media learned. Yesterday, following Kasidiaris’ official announcement that he would run for the Athens municipality, government sources told Kathimerini that the government’s final option, if nothing changes, would be to drop the new ban as it was not deemed necessary to effectively prevent exit Kasidiaris for local elections.
The view was expressed that the current legislation effectively nullifies any election of persons convicted of various offenses, as they are deprived of the right to hold positions in local government.
Thus, according to the same information, the government’s choice is to apply the existing legislation, which does not prohibit those convicted of various offenses from participating in elections, but actually cancels any elections, since they will never take a position in a local government, as they are immediately disqualified, which means all elections are cancelled.
According to the information, the fact that Ilias Kasidiaris is currently imprisoned and unable to campaign in real time (excursions, speeches, etc.) played a role in resolving the issue of the lack of regulations, but this, however, , does not mean that his participation in municipal elections, and even in the metropolitan municipality, is not of great political importance for such an event.
Manifesto of Casidiaris:
Vasilika Pantazi, the attorney’s announcement, states:“In my capacity as defense counsel for Mr. Ilias Kasidiaris, within the mandate I have received, I send you the following to inform you of what constitutes a personal communication from my client: Ilias Kasidiaris will be a candidate for the mayor of Athens in the October local elections and will fight for the post of mayor under the slogan “FREE ATHENS”.
His goal is to advance to the second round and then take over the administration of the municipality. Athens can and must preserve its Greek identity and historical character, not succumb to the onslaught of globalization and the apparent danger of displacement of the Greek population. A radical fight against crime and non-residential areas of the historical center will be carried out, wasteful spending on extremely unsuccessful projects disfiguring the city’s appearance will be stopped.
Municipal fees and services, civil defense, public works, animal protection and ecology, energy self-sufficiency of households will be built according to the standards of modern European capitals from the very beginning. The Christian faith and traditions of Athens will be preserved intact. Our priority is the prosperity, security and economic development of the Athenian citizen. Together we can make Athens the capital of the Greeks again.”
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