Greece’s neo-Nazi party Chryssi Avghi (Golden Dawn) won between 6.0 and 7.5% of the vote in Sunday’s elections, according to exit polls, European Jewish Press reports.
Last month, Golden Dawn, riding a wave of anti-immigrant anger, received 6.97% of the vote, winning 21 seats in the 300-member Parliament.
The head of Golden Dawn, Nikos Mihaloliakos, is a holocaust denier. He told a reporter: “There were no oven, no gas chambers, it’s a lie.” He then added: “Auschwitz, what Auschwitz? I didn’t go there. What happened there? Have you been there?”
He said he has “read lots of books casting doubt on the number of six million Jews” who died in the Holocaust.
The central board of Jewish communities in Greece called on the Greek government to “condemn and isolate the forces seeking the revival of the darkest ideology of European history.”
Reuters reported that Greek parties committed to a bailout to save Greece from bankruptcy were set to win a slim parliamentary majority on Sunday, beating radical leftists who reject the terms of the lifeline and bringing relief to a world braced for fresh financial turmoil.
An exit poll carried out by five polling companies for Greece’s major television channels projected the conservative New Democracy party as coming in with between 27.5 and 30.5 percent of the vote, with the anti-EU extreme left Syriza party at between 27 and 30 percent.