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One Greek lawmaker has ended up in police custody and another is in hospital after a brawl in the parliament in Athens on Wednesday.
Independent MP Konstantinos Floros — formerly with the far-right Spartiates (Spartans) party — appeared to assault MP Vassilis Grammenos of the nationalist Greek Solution party during a heated debate in parliament over a defamation lawsuit.
Parliament was discussing the lifting of the immunity of Greek Solution President Kyriakos Velopoulos, who has been sued for defamation by a retired navy officer. Floros is the retired navy officer’s son. He requested to speak in the plenary during the debate, but was not allowed to, since he is involved in the case.
“This will be decided by judges,” Floros shouted anyway, to which Grammenos replied “shut up, you trash!”
The tension escalated and the two men stepped outside of the plenary room. Photos have emerged in Greek media that appear to show Floros putting Grammenos in a headlock and throwing him on the ground.
Grammenos was transferred to the parliament’s clinic. A party official later told POLITICO that he had been transferred to hospital, with a fracture to his nose and his wrist. Floros was detained and brought to the police headquarters.
He will be charged with violating article 157 of the criminal code, according to which it is a felony to attack against a member of parliament during the performance of his duties and could face up to ten years in prison.
“This is an unfortunate moment,” his lawyer Vaso Pantazi told reporters. “No one approves of such an act, but there is a human condition. Before the unfortunate incident there was a verbal attack of incredible vulgarity.”
Other lawmakers called for criminal charges.
“We can indict the perpetrator of this vile and barbaric attack, to charge him with a felony under a fast-track procedure,” Speaker Constantine Tassoulas told lawmakers, adding that “parliamentary immunity applies to misdemeanors, but not felonies.”
Three far-right fringe parties made it to the Greek parliament in the national elections last summer, including Spartiates, backed by former extreme-right Golden Dawn frontman Ilias Kasidiaris, who is in prison.
Separately, Greece’s Supreme Court decided Wednesday to exclude Spartiates party from the EU elections. The court considered a petition by three political parties over its alleged links to Golden Dawn, whose leading members were jailed in 2020 as members of a criminal organization.
