The leader of the extreme-right Greek Golden Dawn party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, has made a racist slur against the Greek basketball player of Nigerian descent Giannis Antetokounmpo and described a former US senator as a "fanatical Jew and Zionist but also a big and active antifascist activist". In a tirade delivered on an online party broadcast, Michaloliakos attacked 19-year-old Antetokounmpo, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2013 NBA Draft, saying his parents should have been arrested as illegal immigrants when they were received by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at his office last month where Antetokounmpo was granted Greek citizenship.
"A policeman should have arrested them outside the Maximos Mansion [the prime minister's office] and brought them to a detention center, along with the other illegal immigrants," Michaloliakos said. According to the Golden Dawn leader, Antetokounmpo's selection by the US team was part of a plot hatched by the team's owner, former US senator Herb Kohl.
Displaying more than his crude racism, Michaloliakos also demonstrated general ignorance of the Greek national team in this summer's Eurobasket 2013 in Estonia.
"It seems that God is a Greek because in the third game, our national side lost, and the Nigerian didn't even score a point," he claimed. In fact, the Greek side lost in its seventh game, which was against Turkey, in which Antetokounmpo scored a point.
It was not the first time that Antetokounmpo has been subjected to abuse by the Golden Dawn leader, who in July referred likened the sportsman to a "chimpanzee".
For his most recent attack, Michaloliakos appeared in the webcast alongside his fellow Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris, whom the party is expected to nominate as its candidate for the Athens mayoral election, which will be held next May.
Condemnation by Greek Jews
The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece expressed Greek Jewry’s repugnance over the racist statements by the Golden Dawn leader. "Such ideologies, based on racist motives that promote hatred and incite to violence, constitute a clear violation of the fundamental principals" of the Greek constitution. The board said the "outrageous statements make clear the need of a strong anti-racism law in order to fortify constitutional freedoms and ethical values aiming at safeguarding the respect of human rights and the peaceful coexistence of people."
