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Golden Dawn leader denies gas chambers of Holocaust

May 15, 2012 08:20
Nikolaos Mihaloliakos

By

Jennifer Lipman,

Jennifer Lipman

1 min read

The leader of the neo-fascist party that won seats in the Greek parliament for the first time earlier this month has denied some of the fundamental facts of the Holocaust.

Golden Dawn, which now claims 21 parliamentarians and whose members are known for giving Nazi salutes and for their staunchly anti-immigrant stance, is led by Nikolaos Mihaloliakos. According to Reuters Mr Mihaloliakos told an interviewer on Sunday that he did not believe that six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis. He described the figure as an "exaggeration".

He said: "There were no ovens, this is a lie ... there were no gas chambers either."

Holocaust denial is not illegal in Greece, but a government spokesman said he categorically condemned Mr Mihaloliakos's remarks.