Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party banned after one of its MPs called for military coup

Euronews: Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party has been temporarily banned from parliamentary proceedings after one of its MPs called for the military to overthrow the government.

The controversial comments came during a debate on a no-confidence motion against the SYRIZA-led government, which has come under attack after striking a deal with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to settle a long-running dispute over that country’s name.

I call on the country’s military leadership to respect its oath: to arrest Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, (defence minister) Panos Kammenos and (President) Prokopis Pavlopoulos in order to prevent this treason!” Constantinos Barbarousis said. “Your heads in Prespes!”

Greece was under military rule from 1967 to 1974. Prespes is the town where the deal is expected to be signed, and what was seen as a call for the politicians’ heads to roll caused uproar among MPs.

Parliament’s Speaker Nikos Voutsis called the claims an “open call for a coup”, accusing the fascist party of deliberately trying to incite violence in the days running up to the anticipated signature by Athens and Skopje.

Voutsis called an emergency meeting of the Greek parliament’s presidents and banned Golden Dawn from all sessions relating to the no-confidence motion.

Defence Minister Panos Kammenos, one of those cited by Barbarousis, has called for all the party’s MPs to have their parliamentary immunity lifted and be prosecuted.