With his New Democracy Conservative party rapidly losing support to the soaring neo-Nazi anti-immigrant party that has 18 seats in Parliament, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has proposed repealing a law granting citizenship to second-generation immigrants who were born in Greece, speak Greek and have attended Greek school for at least six years.
Ahead of the June 17 second election, Samaras said he wanted all illegal immigrants out of Greece but has seen his platform usurped by the militant extremists of Golden Dawn, who have been accused of beating immigrants and using vigilante groups to patrol neighborhoods they believe have seen rises in crime because of foreigners.
Samaras’ move further right ired his coalition partners, the PASOK Socialists and Democratic Left, who criticized the proposal, which came a day after a Greek court found the 2010 law giving migrants greater citizenship rights was flawed.
Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said that the law would be “replaced with new legislation compatible with the decision of the Council of State.” The so-called “Ragousis law,” named after former Socialist Interior Minister Yiannis Ragousis, was passed in 2010 but has long been a target of Samaras, who vowed to abolish it.
PASOK said such reforms “should not be rushed or taken without the agreement of all coalition partners” while Democratic Left described as unjustifiable any reforms that “yield to racism and xenophobia” and said that the link to the country of immigrants who were born and grew up in Greece must be recognized.
The left-wing opposition SYRIZA said the move showed “the government has adopted the agenda of hate and fear set out by Golden Dawn,” the neo-Fascist party that has been blamed for attacks on immigrants. Greek authorities have rounded up scores of thousands of immigrants in a sweep this year in search of those in the country unlawfully.
(Source: Kathimerini)
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