Athens:
He is Greece's best-known resistance hero and at the ripe age of 91, Manolis Glezos is gearing up for a European parliamentary comeback.
The anti-austerity, radical leftist party Syriza is set to top the polls in Greece on Sunday with its lead candidate, former journalist Glezos, due to become the oldest European deputy in Brussels.
It would be Glezos' second stint at the chamber, three decades after his first one-year foray in 1984 as a socialist.
Hunted by the Nazis during Greece's wartime occupation in 1941-1944, jailed and condemned to death several times during the Greek Civil War, Glezos has been a fighter all his life.
He is best remembered for an audacious act as a teenager alongside his friend Apostolos Santas when he climbed on top of the Acropolis in May 1941 and removed the Nazi swastika flag flying over occupied Athens.
Wartime torture means he will have a longer journey to the capitals of European power than other parliamentarians. He says lung damage caused by Nazi torturers has left him unable to fly.
"I will go to Venice by boat and take a train to Strasbourg," he told AFP.
"I will remain there for a year, and then resign my post and return to Greece", when his party hopes to force an early general election.
Glezos has remained at the forefront of radical politics throughout his life.
When the financial crisis struck Greece in 2010, he joined anti-austerity protesters outside the Greek parliament and was tear-gassed by riot police.
He has been Greece's oldest parliamentarian since 2012, when he was elected to the chamber with the Syriza leftists.
He is in favour of nationalising banks, taxing the rich and exploiting Greece's natural and renewable resources to help the economy become more self-sufficient.
In a recent interview with the Eleftherotypia daily, he proposed a forced loan from wealthy Greeks.
"The limit could be (on incomes) over 100,000 euros ($137,000). From that level and above, there could be a forced loan...to save the country and get the state running," he said.
Glezos is also one of the leading voices calling for the return of loans forced on Greece by Nazi Germany during the war -- an issue which Berlin says was addressed in postwar settlements.
"The Germans owe us 162 billion euros," he has said.
He is confident his party will take power at national elections, which may be held as early as next year.
"I am certain we will win the European elections and form a popular government," he told Eleftherotypia earlier this month.
Passion for the people
Overall, Glezos has spent some 12 years behind bars, most recently during the military junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974.
He spent part of that time educating himself, studying geology, linguistics and other subjects considered "politically safe" by his jailers.
Through it all, he says his passion has been to serve the Greek people.
"A party should incarnate the conscience of the people. Leaders mean little," Glezos told AFP at his modest ground-floor apartment, surrounded by books and papers.
And what he wants to bring to the European parliament is "the spirit of a Europe of the people".
He remains inspired by the memory of his older brother Nikos, who was executed by the Nazis in 1944.
As he was led away to the firing squad, Nikos left a final message to his family, hidden inside his cap: "I fall for the Greek people."
"The word 'people' was written in capital letters, because this is the idea driving this country: power to the people," said Glezos.
The anti-austerity, radical leftist party Syriza is set to top the polls in Greece on Sunday with its lead candidate, former journalist Glezos, due to become the oldest European deputy in Brussels.
It would be Glezos' second stint at the chamber, three decades after his first one-year foray in 1984 as a socialist.
Hunted by the Nazis during Greece's wartime occupation in 1941-1944, jailed and condemned to death several times during the Greek Civil War, Glezos has been a fighter all his life.
He is best remembered for an audacious act as a teenager alongside his friend Apostolos Santas when he climbed on top of the Acropolis in May 1941 and removed the Nazi swastika flag flying over occupied Athens.
Wartime torture means he will have a longer journey to the capitals of European power than other parliamentarians. He says lung damage caused by Nazi torturers has left him unable to fly.
"I will go to Venice by boat and take a train to Strasbourg," he told AFP.
"I will remain there for a year, and then resign my post and return to Greece", when his party hopes to force an early general election.
Glezos has remained at the forefront of radical politics throughout his life.
When the financial crisis struck Greece in 2010, he joined anti-austerity protesters outside the Greek parliament and was tear-gassed by riot police.
He has been Greece's oldest parliamentarian since 2012, when he was elected to the chamber with the Syriza leftists.
He is in favour of nationalising banks, taxing the rich and exploiting Greece's natural and renewable resources to help the economy become more self-sufficient.
In a recent interview with the Eleftherotypia daily, he proposed a forced loan from wealthy Greeks.
"The limit could be (on incomes) over 100,000 euros ($137,000). From that level and above, there could be a forced loan...to save the country and get the state running," he said.
Glezos is also one of the leading voices calling for the return of loans forced on Greece by Nazi Germany during the war -- an issue which Berlin says was addressed in postwar settlements.
"The Germans owe us 162 billion euros," he has said.
He is confident his party will take power at national elections, which may be held as early as next year.
"I am certain we will win the European elections and form a popular government," he told Eleftherotypia earlier this month.
Passion for the people
Overall, Glezos has spent some 12 years behind bars, most recently during the military junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974.
He spent part of that time educating himself, studying geology, linguistics and other subjects considered "politically safe" by his jailers.
Through it all, he says his passion has been to serve the Greek people.
"A party should incarnate the conscience of the people. Leaders mean little," Glezos told AFP at his modest ground-floor apartment, surrounded by books and papers.
And what he wants to bring to the European parliament is "the spirit of a Europe of the people".
He remains inspired by the memory of his older brother Nikos, who was executed by the Nazis in 1944.
As he was led away to the firing squad, Nikos left a final message to his family, hidden inside his cap: "I fall for the Greek people."
"The word 'people' was written in capital letters, because this is the idea driving this country: power to the people," said Glezos.
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