GREECE: Extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party creates controversy with its pre-election campaign

Record ID: 572352

  • Title: GREECE: Extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party creates controversy with its pre-election campaign
  • Date: 14th June 2012
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (FILE - MAY 29 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GOLDEN DAWN MEMBERS SINGING THEIR PARTY SONG VARIOUS OF GOLDEN DAWN MEMBERS SINGING THE GREEK NATIONAL ANTHEM GOLDEN DAWN MEMBERS MARCHING THROUGH ATHENS WAVING THEIR PARTY FLAG OF ANCIENT GREEK SYMBOL OF MEANDER WHICH RESEMBLES SWASTIKA
  • Embargoed: 29th June 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3ZMWZYBYPXV5958658T1WGA1W
  • Story Text: With Greece just days away from a crucial election, the extreme-right Golden Dawn party is tapping into nationalist sentiment and concern over rising crime in its bid to be part of the country's new parliament.
    Coming from nowhere to win some seven percent of the inconclusive vote in Greece's May 6 election, the party rode a wave of hostility towards illegal immigrants and anger over austerity.
    It became the first far-right party to enter parliament since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974, winning 21 seats before the parliament was disbanded to allow for repeat elections on June 17.
    In a country that resisted Nazi occupation in World War II, Golden Dawn has been at pains to reject the label of a neo-Nazi party, calling itself patriotic and nationalistic, but it uses an ancient Greek symbol that resembles the swastika as its logo, and its leader once made the Nazi salute in Athens city hall, causing an uproar.
    It has promised to rid Greece of immigrants.
    Political history professor at the University of Athens Thanos Veremis said people supported Golden Dawn in order to punish Greece's two main political parties who they see as responsible for the country's current economic woes, but also by people frightened by a perceived breakdown in the rule of law. Over recent years Athens residents have complained of rising crime which they blame on illegal immigration.
    "Greece was never a violent country, there was never violence in neighbourhoods, no matter how bad a neighbourhood may have been, or poor. It's a new phenomenon, where people are afraid to go to certain parts of Athens. That's an entirely new phenomenon, as is the new (Golden) Dawn phenomenon, a new phenomenon. It's the remedy to violence. A new kind of violence to counter this violence that people were unused to," Veremis said.
    Golden Dawn members carry out what they describe as security patrols in areas with a high population of immigrants.
    With a new vote looming, the last opinion polls produced before a pre-election blackout showed support for Golden Dawn had dropped, although it still remained comfortably above the 3 percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
    But the party's election campaigning has been riddled with controversial acts. Last week, one of its members, Ilias Kasidiaris hurled a glass of water at one female politician and surged from his seat to slap another in the face three times during a live television discussion. Kasidiaris then filed a lawsuit against his victims for defamation, blaming the two middle-aged women for deliberately provoking him into the attack. Kasidiaris said he had been set up and was acting in self-defence after one of the women threw a stack of papers at him. The incident drew wide criticism with the footage being continuously replayed on television.
    Women's groups decried the slapping incident as sexism against female politicians and journalist unions asked the National Council for Radio and Television to ban Golden Dawn members from news shows despite legal requirements that all parties in parliament are given equal air time.
    It is not the first time Golden Dawn has had a run in with the media.
    After the election on May 6, leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos told journalists of his contempt for them.
    "The channels and the dirty conspiracy against the nationalists, in all over Greece, in all over the world. You are liars against the nationalism. You must be ashamed for all your lies," he told journalists as he walked towards his party headquarters after the election.
    Journalists unions also protested against Golden Dawn members demanding they stand up in honour of Mihaloliakos during a news conference.
    As the repeat election approaches, the party is not backing down from its stance or behaviour.
    "Yes, we want Greece to belong to Greeks, and if this means that we are racists, then yes we are racists, we want Greece to be Greek," Mihaloliakos told cheering crowds at a recent rally.
    Ilias Panagiotaros, who was elected as an MP in the May election told supporters at a rally on Monday that Golden Dawn would be sticking to its principles.
    "Unlike other politicians and parties who at this time, when Greeks are being killed, butchered and raped, don't dare to tell the truth about the situation," he said, referring to attacks against Greeks by immigrants.
    On May 22, Golden Dawn supporters joined local residents in the Peloponnese city of Patras who attempted to break into an abandoned factory where illegal immigrants were squatting. What began as a protest over the death of a local man who had reportedly been stabbed by an immigrant, resulted in people armed with batons, stones and petrol bombs attacking the police guarding the factory.
    Last week in Athens thousands joined a protest organised by anti-racism and left wing groups calling for Golden Dawn to be excluded from parliament, and organisers said their numbers were boosted by those angered by the Kasidiaris slapping incident.
    Member of the left-wing Antarsia Party Petros Konstantinou said there was no place for Golden Dawn in a democratic country.
    "We don't have to bear with that, they are not part of democracy, they are part of the mechanism that destroys democracy," he said.
    Anti-racism activist Alexandra Martini said there should be an organized effort to discourage fascism.
    "We need a new anti-fascist movement in the schools, in our neighbourhoods, in the universities where they are trying to make their mark, and in the workplace so we can rid them from society," she said.
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