Patriotic Alliance

Patriotic Alliance (Greek: Πατριωτική Συμμαχία ΠΑΤΡΙ.Σ., Patriotiki Symmachia, PATRI.S. "Patris" means fatherland in Greek) was a short-lived Greek nationalist political party, founded in 2004. It was a member party of the European National Front.

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Organisation and activities

On April 21, 2004, members of the neo-Nazi organisation Hrisi Avgi, former members of the Popular Orthodox Rally and a few other members of minor far-right groups, announced the foundation of Patriotic Alliance. The leader of the party was Dimitrios Zaphiropoulos (a former leading member of Hrisi Avgi) and its deputy was Elias Panagiotaros. Other leading members of the party were Nikolaos Michaloliakos, leader of Hrisi Avgi, and Spyridon Zournatzis, former member of the European Parliament and leader of the far-right National Political Union.[1]

Patriotic Alliance received 10,618 votes (0.17% of votes cast) in the 2004 European Parliament elections. The party also participated in the 2006 Athens municipal elections on the "Athens Greek City" (Αθήνα Πόλις Ελληνική - Athina Polis Elliniki) slate, gaining 3,705 votes, 1.34% of votes cast.

The party publishes the newspaper Eleftheros Kosmos

Anti-fascist groups accused Patriotic Alliance for being simply the new name of the neo-Nazi party Hrisi Avgi.[2] However, activities by Patriotic Alliance's members were often attributed to Hrisi Avgi (even by themselves), creating confusion.[3]

Disbandment

In January 2007, Patriotic Alliance ceased its political activities, after the interruption of support that accepted from the members and leadership of Hrisi Avgi. Hrisi Avgi claimed that the Patriotic Alliance began as a Nationalistic institution, acquired finally dome ideological content that led to gullible anachronisms that were connected with the former arrangement of the Greek military coup d'état (1967–1974). Seeing therefore that the continuation of this shaping was fruitless, they asked and they achieved the interruption of all political collaborations that led to the shaping of the term "Alliance" and finally all party's activities. The newspaper of the party, Eleftheros Kosmos, continues to be published.

References

  1. ^ 11/9/2005 article from newspaper To Vima.
  2. ^ Article from the Iospress journalist team of newspaper Eleftherotypia.
  3. ^ An article from the website of Patriotic Alliance, stating that "those who contributed mostly in our political campaign were the youth of Hrisi Avgi".

External links