Spiros Hagabimana, a working-class resident of the suburbs of Athens, is running a door-to-door campaign in upcoming elections that could make him Greece’s first black legislator.
Hagabimana has made a remarkable transformation since he was imprisoned eight years ago in Burundi as a senior officer of the National Police for refusing open fire on protesters against the government.
This would be an historic victory in a nation where immigrants rarely hold official positions and where the extremist Golden Dawn party, which has a strongly anti-immigrant agenda, was once the third most popular political force.
Hagabimana, dressed in a suit with a tie, walks through the streets of his constituency in Greece, where he will be running in the May 21 elections, visiting farmers’ markets and cafés to meet voters.
In an interview with Reuters, Hagabimana, a 54-year-old senior official in the migration ministry and a candidate for the conservative New Democracy Party, said: “I have an idea about racism.”
“Racism can’t be defeated with just words.” Racism can be fought by everyday actions. “When the other person is scared of the unknown, give them the opportunity to experience what they’re afraid of.”
Another Black candidate is running for the leftist Syriza Party in Athens. He is the Kenyan born founder of ASANTE a non-governmental organisation that helps migrants. His chances of winning are less, but he still has a good chance.
At the height of Greece’s economic crisis, the district in which Hagabimana runs, including the impoverished town of Perama, and the island of Salamina just west of Athens was a stronghold of Golden Dawn.
Golden Dawn’s leaders were imprisoned in 2020 for hate crimes and later disbanded.
Hagabimana was a sign that Greece had turned the page.
“(Golden Dawn’s) executives were in Parliament. They’re now in prison. I have faith in Greeks,” he said.
Hagabimana arrived in Greece for the first time in 1991, on a scholarship at the Naval Academy.
He was forced to seek refuge in Greece after a military coup erupted in Burundi in 1996. He studied law, and joined the youth wing of New Democracy.
Hagabimana returned to Burundi in 2005, the same year he was granted Greek citizenship, to assist with peacekeeping efforts at the United Nations.
Ten years later, protests against a third term of the president gripped the country. Hagabimana was a National Police Officer at the time. He refused to suppress protesters and was jailed, according to him.
He said: “I knew that if they had hit me on my head, I would be finished.”
A lawyer friend from Athens started an international campaign to free him while he was in prison. In 2016, he returned to Athens with the assistance of Greek authorities.
Hagabimana is primarily focused on business, but he hopes to inspire migrants by showing them that they “can be equal members in society…and that what I have achieved, they can achieve more”.
He said that the colour of his face should not be the main focus.
“It’s more important for me to be a Greek by choice.”