The country’s supreme court has recommended the indictment of 11 lawmakers from the far-right Spartans party for allegedly taking part in election fraud, guided by a convicted neo-Nazi politician.
All of the suspects were elected with the far-right party Spartans Of them, four are now sitting as independents, including two who quit the party on Thursday.
The fallout has spawned since Ilias Kasidiaris, currently serving jail time for his leadership role in the banned Golden Dawn party, publicly supported the Spartans from behind bars, boosting its political fortunes in the June 2023 national polls.
Since then a supreme court probe has found evidence allegedly supporting that Mr. Kasidiaris was in fact the real leader than its listed president, Vassilios Stigas. The finding could have profound implications, as Greek law prohibits parties from competing in elections if their real leaders, not representatives, carry life-long convictions.
On Thursday, the state-run Athens News Agency reported that Mr. Kasidiaris is expected to be charged. What is more, the findings of the supreme court investigation set the Spartans into turmoil with at least two of its elected members, Ioannis Dimitrokalis and Giorgos Manousos, quitting the party, retaining however their seats in the 300-member parliament.
“Until now,” Mr. Manousos said, “my stay hinged on the that the Greek judiciary would not find even a shred of credibility in these false statements.”
If the implicated lawmakers are convicted, their seats will be distributed among the remaining political parties in parliament.
The Supreme Court investigation comes after Mr. Stigas dismissed three of his 12 MPs -- Ioannis Kontis, Ioannis Dimitrokalis and Haris Hatzivardas – accusing them of holding connections with the Greek mafia.
They all returned to the party, but in January, Mr. Hatzivardas, who is also among Mr. Kasidiaris’ team of defence lawyers, quit the grouping, becoming an independent MP.