Greece: Jews critical of candidate who defended antisemitic book in court

Organisations representing Greece’s Jews have expressed their "surprise and regret" at the inclusion of a particular candidate in a New Democracy-backed coalition that hopes to win back city hall in local elections later this month. 

Plevris, a former MP with the rightwing Popular Orthodox Rally (Laos) party, is a candidate for the Athens, You Can coalition, which is headed by mayoral hopeful Aris Spiliotopoulos. 

In a joint statement, the Central Board of Greek Jews and the Jewish Community of Athens said that Plevris has never "repudiated and condemned the disgraceful things said about the Jews in the book Jews: The Whole Truth, which is a monument to antisemitism and hatred". 

The book was written by Plevris father, Kostas, a self-declared racist and Nazi. In 2007, he became the first person to be convicted under the 1979 antiracist law over the book. That conviction was later overturned on appeal, with judges agreeing with him that his book only referred to "Zionist Jews" and not Jews in general. 

The statement said that Thanos Plevris had defended the book's author when he was a Laos MP. His excuse that he was simply acting as a lawyer for his father did not prevent him from condemning the book and its contents after the trial, the statement continued. 

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