The publication of an autobiographical book written by one of November 17’s leaders, Dimitris Koufontinas, has triggered a new clash between New Democracy and SYRIZA.
The coalition government party issued a statement explaining that the introduction to the book was written by Nikos Giannopoulos, a founding member of “Roza” (a political group that was later integrated in he opposition party) and insinuated that SYRIZA offered support to terrorism. SYRIZA responded that Mr. Giannopoulos was never a member of the party.
The two parties also clashed in Parliament, with Makis Voridis repeating the false claim that the introduction was written by a SYRIZA member and outright accusing the opposition of consciously supporting terrorism. The opposition’s Panagiotis Lafazanis argued that Voridis was suffering from a “right-wing delirium” and denounced him of attempting to provoke a political destabilization by accusing the opposition of terrorism.
New Democracy’s candidate for regional governor of Central Greece Kostas Bakoyannis commented on his facebook account that the published was releasing a “bloody book” to make “bloody money”.
The book’s publisher, Livanis Publishing, issued a press release explaining its mission statement to cover Greek history during critical moments and that it has already released a number of books on 17N, without adopting the opinions of their authors.
Mr. Giannopoulos also explained that he was never a member of the opposition party and that he testified as a defense witness at the 17N trials as a founding a member of the Network for Political and Social Rights, arguing that 17N was being persecuted for political purposes
