THE Secretary of the Greek government, Panagiotis Baltakos, a close aide for decades of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, has been revealed as the go-between Samaras and the fascist party of Golden Dawn.
The number two of the fascist party, Ilias Kasidiaris, speaking in the Vouli (Greek parliament) last Wednesday morning against the prosecution and imprisonment of Golden Dawn parliamentary deputies, revealed that early this year he met up with Baltakos and demanded to know why the Golden Dawn deputies were not protected by the government.
Kasidiaris passed on to the media a high quality video of his discussion with Baltakos.
Two hours later Baltakos resigned, admitting the authenticity of the video as well as another meeting with the fascist deputy Kasidiaris.
As Baltakos drafted his resignation, his son, Dimitrios-Yeorghios Baltakos, an officer of the notorious strike-breaking Special Forces of the Greek Coast Guard, attacked and assaulted three Golden Dawn deputies inside their parliamentary office in the Vouli, along with police officers seconded to his father.
The Mercantile Marine Minister, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, ordered an investigation into Baltakos’ son and suspended him from active service.
Two weeks ago Panagiotis Baltakos, well known for his sympathies for Golden Dawn and his close ties with Greek Orthodox Church bishops, stated in a radio interview: ‘Of course I am an anti-communist, I was born one and I will die one.’
Baltakos insisted that a law should be passed by the Vouli which would make refugees liable to prosecution and immediate expulsion if a complaint against Greek Coast Guards or Greek state officials proves to be false.
In the video, Baltakos states that Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was absolutely furious last December when he was informed that half of the arrested Golden Dawn deputies, including Kasidiaris, were freed.
The reason for Samaras’ anger was due to the fact that the previous day he had delivered a speech at the Jewish American congress in New York where he stated that all Golden Dawn deputies involved in illegalities had been arrested; next day Samaras found out that half of Golden Dawn deputies were freed without being charged with any offence.
According to Baltakos, Samaras then telephoned the Greek Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias and the Justice Minister Kharalambos Athanasiou and shouted at them for not imprisoning all Golden Dawn’s arrested deputies.
The Golden Dawn leader, ten deputies and 15 members of the fascist party, were arrested following the murder of rap singer Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn gang in an Athens suburb on 18 September 2013.
The Golden Dawn leader and deputies have been accused of accessory to murder and for setting up a criminal gang.
It has been revealed that Golden Dawn was financed by ship-owners, night-club owners and by several bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church.
In the video, Baltakos states that the High Court investigator had no evidence against those Golden Dawn deputies that were freed.
Baltakos names both the Ministers N Dendias and Kh Athanasiou as the ones who telephoned the Greek High Court Director of Public Prosecutions, Efterpi Koutzamani, to pressure her to charge and imprison the Golden Dawn deputies.
Then Kasidiaris and Baltakos have the following dialogue as heard in the video.
Kasidiaris: ‘I had information that (High Court Director of Public Prosecutions) Koutzamani was a staunch right-winger.
Baltakos crosses himself.
Kasidaris: ‘A God-fearing woman?’
Baltakos: ‘Yes.’
Kasidiaris: ‘Then how come she did all these shameful things with Vourliotis (High Court’s investigator) concocting the investigation’s findings?’
Baltakos: ‘She was convinced by them (Ministers Dendias and Athanasiou) that they (Golden Dawn deputies) are paganists, idol-worshippers, Nazis and against Christianity.’
In separate, very brief statements last Wednesday, both Ministers N Dendias and Kh Athanasiou rejected Baltakos’ claims as ‘untrue’.
In the video, the Golden Dawn deputy says to Baltakos: ‘Go to the Public Prosecutor and state those who set up this whole conspiracy (against Golden Dawn), that Athanasiou ordered Goutzamani, that Samaras had ordered Athanasiou and all of them must be tried; if you are a just man you must do this.’
To which Baltakos responds: ‘If I do this, a half-hour judiciary investigation would take place, which will then would be filed into the archives.’
Then Kasidiaris asks: ‘What Samaras says of all this? Is he aware of what is going on?’
Baltakos answers: ‘No, at the beginning he didn’t… now that he saw the opinion polls…he thought, as thehigh bourgeois he is, that what with all these terrible things (against Golden Dawn), “they would get just 2%” he said to me; but I said to him “I say they will get 20%”.’
In the video, Kasidiaris asks Baltakos: ‘who told Samaras to do all this?’
Baltakos replies that Samaras is afraid that Golden Dawn takes away voters from his party, and that leads to Opposition party SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) coming top in the opinion polls.
To this, Kasidiaris says: ‘And just because we take votes off him he is putting us in prison?’
Baltakos: ‘The ass-hole, unbelievable, unbelievable.’
Late on Wednesday, the office of the High Court Director of Public Prosecutions, that is Efterpi Koutzamani herself, charged Kasidiaris with ‘illegal tapping and use of video material.’
The Greek Deputy Prime Minister and PASOK leader Evagelos Venizelos stated that ‘all pockets adjacent ideologically or practically to the extreme right must be dealt a blow’.
The leader of the small right-wing party Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos, called for the resignation of the Samaras government, while the DIMAR (Democratic Left) party deputy Yiannis Panousis called for an immediate general election.
But SYRIZA parliamentary leaders called for just a parliamentary debate on the issue.
Thus revealed and exposed stands capitalist Greek democracy and the collaboration of the highest state officials and the Prime Minister with the fascist party Golden Dawn.
What is now of utmost importance is the building of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Marxist League to win the forces of resistance and lead them to overthrow the corrupt and barbaric bourgeois rule and capitalist system and to the establishment of a socialist workers’ and small farmers’ government.