2023-12-09 18:02:00
The “witness” ex-consultant
Don’t rush to think what has been heard in the last few days from many sides that all people can change and become from extreme right to just right or even center right. As Makis Voridis himself has made sure to clarify at every opportunity, he does not feel that he has to apologize for anything. And as we reveal today, his political manipulations are based on ideas suggested by another prominent member of the Far Right, with whom he maintained special relations.
The reason is for Yiannis Zografos, a well-known lawyer, who was a defense attorney in the first Golden Dawn trial and also a “scientific collaborator” in the Parliament of the Nazi organization. At the appeals court of the case, Mr. Zografos, together with Kostas Plevris, took up the defense of Yannis Lagos, who had left Golden Dawn in the summer of 2019, as soon as he was elected MEP. The relationship between Zografou and Lagou was of course not just a professional relationship between lawyer and defendant. Since Golden Dawn failed to elect MPs in the 2019 parliamentary elections, there was no room for “scientific collaborators”.
Mr. Zografos, like Mr. Pleuris, identified with Lagos, who in November 2019 announced the creation of his own organization (ELASYN), as a successor scheme. The relationship between Zografou and Lagos was so close that on March 31, 2021 it was announced by ELASYN that “the until yesterday president Yiannis Lagos is retiring from the leadership, but remains as MEP and honorary president of the party, while the leadership is assumed by Giorgos Loukakos and Yiannis Painter”.
How is Mr. Voridis involved in the case? As soon as he became a minister for the first time in November 2011 in the Papadimos government, he made sure to appoint to the ministry his close collaborators from the Greek Front of Lepena. The relevant decision Voridis was published in the Official Gazette (426/6-12-2011), where it is stated that Zografos is appointed “to the position of Special Associate, with salary scale 7, in the Political Office of the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks”. When these appointments of far-right executives became known, Dimitris Papadimoulis submitted a question to the Parliament, but Mr. Voridis did not agree to answer. What can he say anyway? (“Are there also “reclusive” Nazis, Mr. Mitsotakis?”, “Ef.Syn.” 25.4.2023, https://tinyurl.com/yt4wp2hk).
The suggestion of the former adviser
All of this would be of no interest if it were not connected to the many months of efforts of Mr. Voridis to create a prohibitive framework for the electoral ambitions of Ilias Kasidiaris, ignoring the well-documented proposals of the parties of the Left and many constitutional experts. As is well known, these methodical Voridis ended up in the election farce organized by Kasidiaris with the showcase party “Spartiates”, in which he ensured that his collaborators from the organization “Hellenes” and Golden Dawn were placed and elected (see in detail in insert “The dark path of Ilias Kasidiaris”, “Ef.Syn.” 16.9.2023, pp. 21-26). What we are revealing today is that these methods had Mr. Zografos as an informal submitter. We don’t say it. He claims it himself and even publicly.
Yiannis Zografos (collaborator of Lagos) and Haris Katsivardas (collaborator of Kasidiaris) in the online show, where the former announced the method of electoral ban of the leader of the latter
These proposals of Mr. Zografou, which were implemented by Mr. Voridis, were submitted to the pro-Huntian “Free World” online show “Diaxifisms”, which was aired on December 21, 2022 under the title “The participation of the “Greeks” party in the elections may be banned ?”. The passage in question is after the 20th minute and is accessible on the internet, while until yesterday only 755 visitors had seen it (The interesting thing is that, together with Mr. Zografos, Haris Katsivardas also took part in the discussion, in his capacity as a lawyer at the time by Ilias Kasidiaris Mr. Katsivardas is now a member of parliament and a representative of the “Spartiates” and he heard Mr. Zografos addressing him at the time:
“Haris said it very well. Very detailed. I will take the thought a step further, risking to give ideas to… but I don’t think they need me, I want to say that all this is being studied extensively by specialist scientists, so my idea is also redundant . I didn’t want to give Voridis an idea, I mean, but his staff – I imagine – has thought of everything.
“Listen up. In addition to the purely constitutional part, which is exactly as Haris said, the theoretical part with the legal background that exists to prevent the ban, there is also the following. You know, elections are conducted based on an election law. And indeed it is common knowledge that you cannot vote for an election law to be implemented immediately or a provision of an election law to be implemented immediately. It must be implemented from the next election battle, so that there is no John blowing and John drinking. With one exception. That, if there is a unanimous decision of the parties of the House, a provision could be passed, with an amendment, for example, to the electoral law, but without disturbing any Constitution, which says that I prohibit those who have been convicted in the first instance of discreditable offences, and to put in the pejoratives, along with robbery, drug dealing, pedophilia, etc. – although pederasty is not easy to put because half of the N.D. he would get out (right, now I think about it) – anyway, let’s say the rest of the disparaging ones, in which he will also write the address or membership in a criminal organization.
“Imagine, then, that such an amendment to the electoral law is passed, voted by all the parties – make sure they don’t vote for it – and come into effect from this election. And so, not only forbid someone to participate as a leader in a party, or a founder or anything, but also to participate as a simple member of parliament. In other words, it cannot go down in any region. That this will catch all the previous ones as well. This is a more advanced… (a step up) image, than the one we have now.
“I mean, Haris already said and I agree, I subscribe, that what has already been done and which is valid as legislation today, is unconstitutional. Because the core of the legal good that the drafting legislator wanted to protect has already been revoked. Now, since he has abrogated the core by this particular legislative provision, what would prevent him from abrogating the right entirely? That is to say that someone who has these characteristics should stand in the elections, and in fact with a provision of the electoral law”.
I remind you that when Mr. Zografos proposed these, the content of the Voridis proposals had not yet been made public, which of course followed this exact logic. And in fact, Mr. Zografos discounted that there is no way to react to these methods, despite the fact that he himself considered them unconstitutional: “The question is: Well, what can be done?” What can be done, he tells you. The constitutionality or otherwise of a law is judged by the courts, judged in concreto, as we say. I mean, what does that mean? It means that you can say that this is unconstitutional, it completely contradicts the Constitution, it completely contradicts the spirit of the legislator, but nevertheless let the elections be held based on this.
“And then he tells you that, well, since you think it’s unconstitutional, go after the elections to the courts to find it unconstitutional and we’ll see. It goes without saying that the Supreme Court, which as you all know – and if you don’t know, those of you who are not lawyers, you don’t know – is appointed by the respective government, which means no chance of any Supreme Court ruling against what it had already decided the government. So, what do I mean by this? That easily, as they crossed the Rubicon, effectively canceling the Constitution – they had the audacity to do this and they can, that’s why they did it – they can move to the second step”.
It should be noted that Kasidiaris’s close associate Haris Katsivardas listened to all this without speaking and left it unconcerned.
Yannis Zografos between Panagiotaros and Lagos Voridis and Mitsotakis applaud | GIORGOS KONTARINIS/EUROKINISSI
The relationship
In an earlier interview with Thodoros Chatzigogos in the pro-Hunto newspaper “Stoho”, Mr. Zografos has described his relations with Makis Voridis as follows after the accession of the Voridis-Georgiadis-Plevris group to the N.D.: “With Makis Voridis the ” tsougrisame”, as you put it, when he decided, together with the rest of the “group” of yalanzi “extreme rightists” (Adonis and Thanos Pleuris later) in one night literally, to leave LAOS and join N.D. of Samara. At the time, at the end of 2011, he was the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure and I was his legal advisor. I found what he did dishonest, both politically and morally, to those who had supported him for decades. The case has a lot of background, but I think it is inelegant to say what was communicated between us, verbally and in writing, because there are also letters. However, it was not only me who abandoned him, but also many of his collaborators at the time, most of them notable scientists, each in his own field.
“From the “old guard” there is, as far as I know, only one left. However, my six-month term in the ministry is another big chapter, which I will refer to at some point, because it is of enormous political interest to those who deal with the details, like you. Before the summer of 2012, my departure had already become known, when I received a phone call from N. Michaloliakos, whom until that time I did not know personally…” (“Goal”, 27.1.2022).
It is certainly not our job to distinguish whether, with his suggestions to his old boss, Mr. Zografos was just an “evil seer” or really wanted to suggest a “solution”. What is certain is that at the time he made the suggestions, i.e. at the end of December 2022, he himself, as the leader of the ELASYN organization of Lagos, considered Kasidiaris his main opponent, in the attempt to claim the political legacy of Michaloliakos. On February 10, 2023, ELASYN announced that it was “suspending the party’s action”, accusing the government of being “allegedly right-wing”, Mr. Mitsotakis for outsmarting his “Nightmare” father and denouncing all politicians as “traitors, masons, frauds , embezzlers and pedophiles”.
The announcement does not mention the name of Mr. Zografou, who, however, five days later, in another online show where Mr. Katsivardas participated again, will not hesitate to boast that he himself did not parade in (golden) black T-shirts and – above all – he didn’t have the swastika on his arm! With this direct nailing, the gap between Lagos and Kasidiaris was made official, but of course all the claims of the defense and followers of Kasidiaris that the swastika on his arm is… of ancient Greek inspiration (see “Diaxifisms”, 15.2.2023, after 40 ΄). And his close associate Katsivardas found nothing to oppose.
The curtain fell on this show on July 17, 2023, with Lagos declaring in court that he is no longer represented by Mr. Zografos, nor by any other lawyer. Besides, Kostas Plevris had already been removed from the Athens Bar Association, after his flamboyant Nazi salutes in the courtroom.
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