A leading member of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party was thrown out of parliament on Monday after shoving a rival MP, prompting a showdown with other parties.
"You are contaminating parliament. Get out," acting parliament chairman Makis Balaouras shouted at the neo-Nazi party's lawmakers after ejecting Ilias Kasidiaris.
Kasidiaris, 37, became annoyed when conservative New Democracy parliament speaker MP Nikos Dendias passed in front of him as the neo-Nazi lawmaker was speaking on a bill containing new austerity cuts.
"Can't you see I'm talking?" he told Dendias. Parliament TV showed the start of the altercation but the rest took place off-camera.
A parliament source said Kasidiaris shoved Dendias and then other Golden Dawn MPs threw water on him.
Parliament police were summoned to remove Kasidiaris, and Dendias later called the fracas a "huge insult" to Greece's constitutions and laws.
"I hope that this incident will prove useful to society," Dendias told the chamber.
New Democracy has asked for all 17 Golden Dawn MPs to be barred from the debate.
Kasidiaris had already been ejected from a parliamentary briefing in February after insulting the defence minister.
Golden Dawn lawmakers have repeatedly used offensive language in parliament towards representatives of other parties.
They are also suspected of ordering rank-and-file members to attack migrants and political opponents.
Kasidiaris and several other senior party officials, including the group's founder, Nikos Michaloliakos, are on trial in connection with the murder of a leftist rapper by a Golden Dawn member in 2013.
One of Golden Dawn's leading members, Kasidiaris in 2012 had punched a female Communist MP during an election debate.
A court acquitted him in 2015 because he had not inflicted "serious injury", and because the victim not register a complaint within the required time limit.
Dendias was police minister in 2013 when Kasidiaris and several other leading Golden Dawn members were arrested in their homes and placed in pre-trial detention for months over the rapper's murder.
Kasidiaris was conditionally released in 2015 pending the outcome of the murder trial.
A leading member of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party was thrown out of parliament on Monday after shoving a rival MP, prompting a showdown with other parties.
“You are contaminating parliament. Get out,” acting parliament chairman Makis Balaouras shouted at the neo-Nazi party’s lawmakers after ejecting Ilias Kasidiaris.
Kasidiaris, 37, became annoyed when conservative New Democracy parliament speaker MP Nikos Dendias passed in front of him as the neo-Nazi lawmaker was speaking on a bill containing new austerity cuts.
“Can’t you see I’m talking?” he told Dendias. Parliament TV showed the start of the altercation but the rest took place off-camera.
A parliament source said Kasidiaris shoved Dendias and then other Golden Dawn MPs threw water on him.
Parliament police were summoned to remove Kasidiaris, and Dendias later called the fracas a “huge insult” to Greece’s constitutions and laws.
“I hope that this incident will prove useful to society,” Dendias told the chamber.
New Democracy has asked for all 17 Golden Dawn MPs to be barred from the debate.
Kasidiaris had already been ejected from a parliamentary briefing in February after insulting the defence minister.
Golden Dawn lawmakers have repeatedly used offensive language in parliament towards representatives of other parties.
They are also suspected of ordering rank-and-file members to attack migrants and political opponents.
Kasidiaris and several other senior party officials, including the group’s founder, Nikos Michaloliakos, are on trial in connection with the murder of a leftist rapper by a Golden Dawn member in 2013.
One of Golden Dawn’s leading members, Kasidiaris in 2012 had punched a female Communist MP during an election debate.
A court acquitted him in 2015 because he had not inflicted “serious injury”, and because the victim not register a complaint within the required time limit.
Dendias was police minister in 2013 when Kasidiaris and several other leading Golden Dawn members were arrested in their homes and placed in pre-trial detention for months over the rapper’s murder.
Kasidiaris was conditionally released in 2015 pending the outcome of the murder trial.
