Athens ( CNN ) -- A Jewish group in Greece has condemned the leader of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party over comments he made about the Holocaust in a TV interview . Nikos Michaloliakos told Greece 's Mega TV channel in an interview shown Sunday that `` there were no gas chambers and ovens [ crematoria ] in Auschwitz , '' said the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece , or KIS . The politician 's remarks come amid growing concern about the apparent rise of the far right in Greece . Golden Dawn won 21 seats in the country 's May 6 parliamentary elections , after winning almost 7 % of the vote . Two years ago , it commanded only 0.28 % support . Some members of the ultranationalist party , which proposes harsh measures to combat illegal immigration , have been linked with street violence and neo-Nazism . In a statement , KIS urged the Greek government to `` condemn and isolate the forces seeking the revival of the darkest ideology of the European history , '' saying Michaloliakos ' position was an affront to the Greek people . `` It is an insult to the historical memory , the memory of the 6 million Jews , our brethren , amongst whom there where 70,000 Greek Jews , who perished in the death camps of Auschwitz , Dachau , Treblinka and the other sites of the extermination factory founded by Adolf Hitler , '' KIS said in a statement . `` It is an insult toward the survivors , who are still alive to bear witness of this atrocity . It is an insult toward all those who fought against the Nazis . It is an insult to the history of Greece , the sacrifices of the Greek people and the struggle to defend the principles of freedom , democracy and humanism . '' Greek government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis condemned Michaloliakos ' remarks in a statement Monday as `` a distortion of history and a fierce insult to the memory of the millions of Holocaust victims . '' Greece has been in a state of political turmoil since the elections , which saw voters fleeing the moderate parties blamed for backing harsh austerity measures for parties to the far left and far right of the political spectrum . The country faces fresh elections after repeated attempts to form a coalition government ended in failure Tuesday . The political instability has raised the possibility that Greece will fail to make debt payments as early as next month , potentially forcing the country out of the euro , the currency used by 17 European Union countries . Matthew Feldman , director of the Radicalism and New Media Research Group at the University of Northampton , in Britain , says far-right groups are seeing a resurgence in parts of Europe . Instead of open racial attacks , they play up a threat to national identity and criticize multiculturalism , particularly as it relates to Islam , he said . However , while Golden Dawn gained strength in the May 6 election , another far-right party , LAOS , lost its small presence in Greece 's 300-seat parliament as voters punished it for its support of Greece 's austerity program .
Nikos Michaloliakos said on a Greek TV channel : `` There were no gas chambers '' in Auschwitz . The Nazis did not use gas chambers, they used crematoria and ovens to burn the bodies of their victims. Golden Dawn won almost 7 % of the vote in parliamentary elections this month .