The European Jewish Congress (EJC) expressed concern over the inclusion of LAOS, an extreme-right party whose leader is notorious for his anti-Semitic comments and for questioning the Holocaust, in the new Greek coalition government under Prime Minister Lucas Papademos .
"We wish Prime Minister Papademos the best of success in his attempts to overcome the economic, financial and social Greek crisis. The Greek people deserve to surmount this difficult period which severely affects their daily lives," said EJC Secretary General Serge Cwejgenbaum.
"However, the participation of Georgios Karatzaferis in the Greek government besmirches the respectable image of a country known for being the birthplace of democracy," he added.
He called on all governments in Europe "not to allow anti-Semitic or racist parties into the ruling coalition."
"Extremist parties are taking advantage of the economic situation to spout their dangerous ideas. It bodes ill for any national government to welcome people or parties with problematic ideas or ideologies. They should be sidelined and ostracized rather than part of the decision-making process."
LAOS, the Popular Orthodox Rally, joined the coalition made of the Socialist PASOK and the Conservative New Democracy. It has one minister and three deputy ministers in the government formed last week.
The party’s leader, 64-year-old George Karatzaferis, has stated that, "the Jews have no legitimacy to speak in Greece and provoke the political world."
He also referred to the Holocaust and the Auschwitz and Dachau Nazi death camps as "myths" and repeated the big lie that Jews and Israel were involved in planning and executing the 9/11 terror attacks against America.
Aside from Karatzaferis, two LAOS members in the new government also have a history of making anti-Jewish statements.
According to Greek sources, quoted by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Makis Voridis, the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks, questioned whether the infamous anti-Semitic forgery, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," was in fact an authentic document about a global Jewish conspiracy.
In a remark indicative of Holocaust denial, he also reportedly challenged the authenticity of Anne Frank’s diary.
Adonis Georgiadis, the newly appointed Deputy Minister for Development, is reported to have said that "all major banks belong to the Jews" and that "the Jewish Lobby” would determine the fate of Greece’s foreign debt.