Greek far-right party hands out food only to citizens

ATHENS - The Associated Press

Elderly women receive potatoes as a member of Greece's extreme right Golden Dawn with T-shirt of his party party stands at Athens' main Syntagma Square, opposite parliament, on Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2012. AP Photo

Members of the extreme right Golden Dawn party are handing out food outside parliament, checking state identity cards to make sure only citizens of recession-hit Greece receive assistance.
 
Hundreds stood in line at Athens’ main Syntagma Square Wednesday to pick up the food. Party volunteers, dressed in black, passed out milk cartons, pasta, potatoes and olive oil in the one-day charity event.
 
Golden Dawn’s senior members openly support a citizenship policy based on racial identity, and the party has been compared to neo-Nazi groups, though it decries that label.
 
It won 18 spots in the 300-seat parliament in June elections, shocking many in Greece’s establishment.

The party says it will spend most of its state allowance for parliamentary parties on charity programs in Greece, which is in severe economic crisis.