Neo-Nazi party maintains strength in Greek elections.

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party maintained its
strength, winning nearly seven percent of the vote in the Greek
national elections.

The fascist party, with its Nazi swastika-like flag and Holocaust-denying leader, leapt to prominence when it entered the Greek Parliament for the first time in the inconclusive elections six weeks ago.

The conservative New Democracy Party, which supports Greece staying in the European Union and honoring its commitments under bailouts it received, won the most votes and will likely form the new government.

Polls and Greek commentators had predicted that support for Golden Dawn would drop in Sunday’s election, saying the original vote was a protest against the established political parties held responsible for Greece’s economic crisis.
However, the party’s support dropped only fractionally, from 6.97
percent to 6.92 percent in results released Monday, which will give
the party 19 lawmakers in the 300-member parliament.

“It shows we were all wrong and that this is the real percentage of
people who support them with their anti-illegal immigrant policy and
their Nazi style that they show the people,” David Saltiel, president
of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told JTA.

“It is problem for Greek democracy and we have to see how the parties
will react, we hope they will isolate them,” he said.

Golden Dawn had campaigned on an anti-austerity, anti-immigrant
platform, preying on the fears of ordinary Greeks who have seen their
neighborhoods overrun by the nearly 1 million immigrants who have
flooded the country from Asia and Africa hoping to use it as a gateway
to the European Union.

After the first election, Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos —
who came to prominence when he won a seat on the Athens City Council
in 2010 and celebrated by giving the Nazi salute at the first City
Hall meeting — gave an interview in which he denied the existence of
gas chambers at Nazi death camps.