Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis marked the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism with a statement warning that no form of hatred or political violence can ever be excused, regardless of the ideology behind it.
In a social media post, Marinakis said the day was a moment to honour the millions of people who were persecuted, tortured and killed under Stalinism and Nazism. He said history had left behind a heavy warning about how totalitarianism takes hold and spreads.
Totalitarianism does not appear from one day to the next, he said. It begins when hatred is dressed up as a political position, and it grows stronger when violence is justified in the name of a supposedly "superior" cause and when a political opponent stops being treated as a human being.
No "right" extreme, Marinakis says
Marinakis said there is no such thing as a "correct" political extreme and no acceptable form of hatred. He said no act of violence becomes less inhuman simply because it is carried out under a different symbol, adding that hatred itself is not an ideology.
The government spokesperson also said a person cannot present themselves as a patriot while glorifying the Nazis, nor can someone claim to be a democrat while accepting, even silently, the atrocities committed under Stalinism.
He said that in the face of Nazism, Stalinism, fascism and every form of totalitarianism, there is no room for caveats, selective sensitivities or convenient silences.
Background to the day
The European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism falls on 23 August each year. The date marks the anniversary of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the non-aggression treaty signed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that included a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. The European Parliament designated the day of remembrance in 2009 to commemorate the victims of both totalitarian regimes.
Marinakis has served as government spokesperson for the Greek government led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
"Democracy requires clear positions"
Marinakis closed his statement by saying that democracy requires clear positions, because freedom, dignity and human life have no colour and are, in every case, never negotiable.
In his fuller written statement, Marinakis repeated the same themes, saying history had left a heavy warning that had to be heeded, and that hatred, once normalised as a political position, was the first step toward violence being justified against those seen as lesser or as enemies rather than as fellow human beings.
