Rainbow (political party)
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- This page refers to the Greek political party, for other uses see Rainbow party.
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The Rainbow (Greek: Ουράνιο Τόξο Ouránio Tóxo, Macedonian Slavic: Виножито Vinožito) is a political party in Greece.
It is known for its activism amongst the Slavic-speaking minority (which the party regards as an ethnic Macedonian minority) and its support to Macedonian Slavs in Greece and their descendants abroad. The Rainbow states that it is not a separatist party and sees the acceptance of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in the European Union with positive regard.
In the past, it had an alliance with the Organization for the Reconstruction of the Communist Party of Greece (OAKKE). The two in 1996 formed a coalition in the Parliamentary elections.
The party has come under sustained criticism for maintaining that there is a "Macedonian" minority in Greece, a country where Macedonian invariably refers to the Greek inhabitants of Macedonia. They have been prosecuted, their offices burnt and effects stolen.[1] They have come under sustained attack from much of the Greek national press.[2]
The Rainbow received much criticism when former members of the party, Nicolas Stoyanov (Stoidis) and Done Katsorov (Katsoris), left to party to become leaders of the organization Bulgarian Human Rights in Macedonia, instead claiming to represent a Bulgarian minority of Greece.They also changed their surnames from Greek to Bulgarian.Remaining members of the party retain Greek[3] names and surnames.
In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights found the Greek government guilty of violating the European Convention on Human Rights in that it restricted the party's members' freedom of assembly and failed to provide access to justice within a reasonable time. The Greek government was ordered to pay 35,000 euros in compensation.[4]
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[edit] Electoral results
It participated in the 1999 elections for the European Parliament, obtaining 4,951 votes (0.08% of the total Greek vote), and the 2004 elections, obtaining 6,176 votes (0.098%). Their best return was in the Florina prefecture, where they managed to tally 1,203 votes out of 39,532 cast[5]. The Rainbow Party is a member of the European Free Alliance. They decided not to take part in the 2004 parliamentary elections, citing shortage of funds as the reason.
Out of the 6,176 votes Rainbow Party received, less than half (2,955) were cast in the region of Macedonia itself. Because parties stand for election across the entire length and breadth of the country, the pro-ethnic Macedonian Rainbow Party polled better in such distant regions as Crete and the Peloponnese than it did in many Macedonian prefectures. Political analysts have yet to explain why a party championing the "Macedonian" cause would attract more voters outside Macedonia, in areas with no Slavonic-speakers, than in its intended target region.
Petros Dimtsis is a Rainbow Party member who has been elected to the office of prefecture counselor in the Florina prefecture, under the flag of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), in the 2002 Greek Prefectural Elections. So far, he is the only member of the party to have been elected to any office.
Rainbow didn't participate in the Greek legislative election, 2007 citing financial reasons [6].
[edit] Political agenda
An issue very important to the Party's agenda is the reestablishment back to Greece of the former ELAS, DSE and former children refugees expelled during the Greek Civil War from Greek Macedonia. During the Greek Civil War (1944-1949), many of them took refuge in parts of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (particularly the Socialist Republic of Macedonia), under the protection of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito. When PASOK was elected for the first time, they allowed all Greek communist refugees, located in many communist states, to return to Greece. However, the refugees now living in former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were never re-granted their citizenship however due to their being seen as a security threat and agents for foreign aggression.
The Rainbow Party is also interested in achieving political recognition of what they regard as an ethnic Macedonian minority in Greece, and preserving its culture, language, and customs.
[edit] See also
- Politics of Greece
- Bulgarian Human Rights in Macedonia
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- Greek election results, via the Greek Ministry of Internal Affairs
- Press Releases, via the Greek Helsinki Committee for Human Rights
