Golden Dawn

Police have banned all public rallies and protest marches in a part of central Athens on Saturday and Sunday, due to fears of clashes at an event planned by neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to mark the anniversary of the 1996 Imia crisis, when Greece and Turkey almost went to war over the uninhabited islet.

The president of the Pakistani community, Javed Aslan, prays at the site where migrant Shahzad Luqman was murdered in central Athens by two men with links to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group on the 11th anniversary of the incident. Luqman, aged 27, was attacked and stabbed seven times in Petralona, south of the city center, on January 17, 2013, as he was cycling to his place of work.

Ilias Kasidiaris, the convicted former spokesman of the now-defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, has resigned from the Athens Municipal Council after being sworn into office in late December.

A lawyer who represented former MEP Yiannis Lagos of the now disbanded Golden Dawn party has been permanently disbarred from the Athens Bar Association after a decision on Wednesday by the Secondary Disciplinary Council, chaired by Supreme Court President Ioanna Klapa-Christodoulea.

Ilias Kasidiaris, the imprisoned former deputy leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group, was sworn-in as an Athens municipal councilor on Friday.

Athens mayor-elect Haris Doukas and the new city council are to be sworn into office at 11 a.m. on Thursday, in a ceremony at the Kypseli Municipal Market that will not be attended by the convicted far-right councillor Ilias Kasidiaris.

Ilias Kasidiaris, the jailed former deputy leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn group, is slated to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of the new municipal authority next week. The ceremony is scheduled to take place at the Kypseli Municipal Market in central Athens on Thursday.

Democracy is under threat across the world. Fewer people today live in democracies than did two decades ago. Opposition to democracy, and to capitalism, has grown as populists launch "culture wars" - cruelly exploiting migrants and minorities - and appeal to the socially and economically excluded. This is a cocktail variously stirred by Trump, Brexit, Modi, Le Pen, Orban and Meloni.

The members of far-right groups that were arrested last week for the violent clashes with leftists at Monastiraki metro station in central Athens were released Monday, subject to the condition of appearing at their local police station. 

The Greek Parliament's Ethics Committee unanimously agreed on the lifting the immunity of 11 lawmakers of the far-right Spartiates (Spartans) party, following a request by the Supreme Court which is investigating accusations of electoral fraud during this year's legislative elections.

The request will not have to be submitted to the Parliament's plenary for a vote.