Fear and Loathing in Athens: The Rise of Golden Dawn and the Far Right

THE GUARDIAN: In austerity-ravaged Greece, neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn is on the rise. Their MPs give fascist salutes, while on the streets black-shirted vigilantes beat up immigrants. And some of their most enthusiastic supporters are in the police

You can hear it from blocks away: the deafening beat of Pogrom,Golden Dawn's favourite band, blasting out of huge speakers by a makeshift stage. "Rock for the fatherland, this is our music, we don't want parasites and foreigners on our land…" It's a warm October evening and children on bicycles are riding up and down among the young men with crew cuts, the sleeves of their black T-shirts tight over pumped-up biceps, strolling with the stiff swagger of the muscle-bound. They look relaxed, off-duty. Two of them slap a handshake: "Hey, fascist! How's it going?"

Trestle tables are stacked with Golden Dawn merchandise: black T-shirts bearing the party's name in Greek, Chrysi Avgi, the sigma shaped like the S on SS armbands; mugs with the party symbol, a Greek meander drawn to resemble a swastika; Greek flags and black lanyards, lighters and baseball caps. I lean over to talk to one woman stallholder, dressed in Golden Dawn black with thickly kohl-rimmed eyes, but as soon as she opens her mouth a man in a suit strides up: "What are you writing? Are you a journalist? Tear that page out of your notebook. No, no, you can't talk to anyone."

Tonight is the opening of the Golden Dawn office in Megara, a once prosperous farming town between Athens and Corinth. The Greek national socialist party polled more than 15% here – double the national average – in the June election, when it won 18 seats in parliament. (One was taken up by the former bassist with Pogrom, whose hits include Auschwitz and Speak Greek Or Die.)

Legitimised by democracy and by the media, Golden Dawn is opening branches in towns all over Greece and regularly coming third in national opinion polls. Its black-shirted vigilantes have been beating up immigrants for more than three years, unmolested by the police; lately they've taken to attacking Greeks they suspect of being gay or on the left. MPs participate proudly in the violence. In September, three of them led gangs of black-shirted heavies through street fairs in the towns of Rafina and Messolonghi, smashing up immigrant traders' stalls with Greek flags on thick poles. » | Maria Margaronis | Friday, October 26, 2012

Rise of Greece’s Golden Dawn: A Presage of Doom

JEWISH JOURNAL: The undisguised extremism promoted by Golden Dawn is a chilling watershed in Greece’s post[-]war democracy. Fascist gangs are turning Athens into a city of shifting front lines, seizing on crimes and local protests to promote their own movement, by claiming to be the defenders of recession-ravaged Greece.

The People’s Association – Golden Dawn — usually referred to simply as Golden Dawn — is a right-wing extremist political organization in Greece. It is led by Nikolaos Michaloliakos, and has grown considerably since its inception to a widely known Greek political party with nationwide support.

Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party is gaining popularity in the midst of the country’s deepening financial crisis. The group has been implicated in torture cases, and for inciting a wave of racial violence sweeping the country.

An opinion poll published by KAPA Research in October showed that support for the extremist political group had grown from 7.5 percent of the population in June to 10.4 percent currently.

The Golden Dawn emerged from political obscurity into the mainstream in May after winning 7 percent of the vote in the Greek parliamentary elections. Since then, the country has reportedly witnessed an upsurge in racial violence connected to the right-wing group.

The party entered the international spotlight after some of its members reportedly participated in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims. Its publication praises the Third Reich and often features photographs of Hitler and other Nazis.

Golden Dawn has manipulated a weak Greek state and disastrous austerity management by European bureaucrats to become, according to recent polls, the third-most popular political party in the country — a noxious omen for the eurozone and a worrying challenge and counterpoint to the very idea of the European Union itself, which received last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. » | Hatef Mokhtar | Thursday, March 14, 2013

Greece Crackdown: Golden Dawn Leader Michaloliakos Charged

BBC: The leader of the far-right Golden Dawn party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, has been formally charged with belonging to a criminal organisation.

Four more Golden Dawn MPs, a party leader in an Athens suburb and 15 other people face the same charges.

They were arrested on Saturday amid anger over the murder on 18 September of anti-racist musician, Pavlos Fyssas.

A man held for the stabbing told police he was a Golden Dawn supporter, though the party strongly denies any link.

The MPs arrested on Saturday were party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, Ilias Panayiotaros, Nikos Michos and Ioannis Lagos. It is the first time since 1974 that a party leader and MPs have been arrested.

It was an extraordinary moment to see the five MPs being escorted in handcuffs by armed police in balaclavas, BBC Athens correspondent Mark Lowen reports.

They will now return to police headquarters and are likely to be refused bail before their trial, our correspondent says.

Mr Panayiotaros told reporters before giving himself up: "Shame on them, the people will lift Golden Dawn higher." » | Saturday, September 28, 2013

Golden Dawn Leader Charged with Heading a Criminal Gang »

SS Songs and Antisemitism: The Week Golden Dawn Turned Openly Nazi

Golden Dawn supporters wave party and Greek national flags
during rally outside parliament on 4 June.

THE OBSERVER: Supporters of the far-right party gave Hitler salutes and sang the Horst Wessel song outside parliament last week. Helena Smith reports from Athens on how Golden Dawn has taken on a sinister new tone

It has been a bad week for democracy in Athens. All around this great Greek city, the politics of hate now lurk. On Friday I got a taste of it in the tiny Italian-style cafe I frequent off Syntagma Square.

It arrived in the form of two middle-aged men, both supporters of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn – and, by their own account, the holders of university degrees, well-travelled and well-informed. Over espressos, they began to engage in an animated discussion about all that is wrong with Greece.

The first, a self-described businessman decked out in designer suit, brogues and silk tie, blamed the country's economic collapse on malfeasance, corruption and uncontrolled immigration. "The only way to teach our filthy politicians is to bring in Golden Dawn," he trilled, his eyes locked in a fierce glare. "These gentlemen are patriots, proud Greek nationalists, and they know how to deal with the scum, the foreigners who never pay taxes, who steal our jobs, who have taken over our streets."

Dismissing charges that Golden Dawn is a criminal gang masquerading as a political group, the second – a self-described government employee – said the far right was the best response yet to the great Jewish conspiracy of an interconnected banking system that has come with globalisation. "Let's not forget all the faggots and the Jews, the wankers who control the banks, the foreigners who are behind them, who came in and fucked Greece," he insisted. "The criminals who have governed us, who have robbed us of our future, of our dreams, need a big thwack." » | Helena Smith | Saturday, June 07, 2014

Greek Police Send Crime Victims to Neo-Nazi 'Protectors'

THE GUARDIAN: Far-right Golden Dawn party filling vacuum for those neglected by state after MPs elected to fight 'immigrant scum'

Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party is increasingly assuming the role of law enforcement officers on the streets of the bankrupt country, with mounting evidence that Athenians are being openly directed by police to seek help from the neo-Nazi group, analysts, activists and lawyers say.

In return, a growing number of Greek crime victims have come to see the party, whose symbol bears an uncanny resemblance to the swastika, as a "protector".

One victim of crime, an eloquent US-trained civil servant, told the Guardian of her family's shock at being referred to the party when her mother recently called the police following an incident involving Albanian immigrants in their downtown apartment block.

"They immediately said if it's an issue with immigrants go to Golden Dawn," said the 38-year-old, who fearing for her job and safety, spoke only on condition of anonymity. "We don't condone Golden Dawn but there is an acute social problem that has come with the breakdown of feeling of security among lower and middle class people in the urban centre," she said. "If the police and official mechanism can't deliver and there is no recourse to justice, then you have to turn to other maverick solutions."

Other Greeks with similar experiences said the far-rightists, catapulted into parliament on a ticket of tackling "immigrant scum" were simply doing the job of a defunct state that had left a growing number feeling overwhelmed by a "sense of powerlessness". "Nature hates vacuums and Golden Dawn is just filling a vacuum that no other party is addressing," one woman lamented. "It gives 'little people' a sense that they can survive, that they are safe in their own homes." » | Helena Smith in Athens | Friday, September 28, 2012

Golden Dawn Leader Charged with Heading a Criminal Gang

THE GUARDIAN: Nikos Michaloliakos appears in court after he is arrested along with key members of his Greek neo-fascist party


The leader of Greece's Golden Dawn party, widely viewed as Europe's most violent political force, appeared in court on Saturday night on charges of heading a criminal gang after police mounted an unprecedented crackdown on the neo-fascist party, arresting Nikos Michaloliakos and other key members of his organisation.

After a police operation in which anti-terrorism officers stormed the homes of Golden Dawn politicians across Athens, Michaloliakos and five of his MPs were seized. Fifteen other senior party activists, including a female police officer, were taken into custody accused of fomenting violence as members of a criminal organisation. Reading from a nine-page charge sheet, a public prosecutor accused the far-rightists of murder, extortion and money laundering.

The crackdown was hailed as "a historic day for Greece and Europe" by the public order minister, Nikos Dendias, who oversaw the operation, known only to three security officials before it was launched a little after dawn. "Golden Dawn tried to test the endurance of democracy," he said in a televised address, insisting that the inquiry into the party's illegal activities would continue apace. "Today it got an answer from state justice." » | Helena Smith in Athens | The Observer | Saturday, September 28, 2013

Greeks Protest against Violent Neo-Nazi MP On the Run
THE GUARDIAN: Golden Dawn spokesman who assaulted leftwing politicians evades arrest as protesters denounce fascism

Protesters across Greece poured on to the streets of cities Friday night, denouncing the "dark force" of fascism as the spokesman of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party continued to elude arrest more than 24 hours after his extraordinary on-screen assault of two female leftwing politicians.

Nine days before fresh general elections, the fault lines in Greek society are deepening.

And late on Friday, as a police manhunt for Ilias Kasidiaris [F] showed little sign of yielding a positive result, the divisions were on full display.

While anti-fascist demonstrators descended on public squares, supporters of Golden Dawn crammed into a hotel in Athens to hear the party's leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, rail against immigrant "scum" and the corrupt and crooked system that had brought the crisis-hit country to such a "dark place".

"There is growing polarisation. People are becoming increasingly radicalised thanks to all the rhetoric in the EU and here against the anti-austerity leftist majority and that is opening the door for Golden Dawn," said veteran activist Petros Constantinou. "We are demonstrating not only against the rise of the far right but against those who have enabled fascism to take root." » | Helena Smith in Athens | Friday, June 08, 2012

Rise of Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party Leads to Spate of Immigrant Attacks in Greece
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The rise of Greece's far-Right Golden Dawn party has led to a spate of vicious attacks against immigrants that it is feared will only increase after a new election is held on Sunday.

The neo-Nazi group has been blamed for numerous violent incidents since the May 6 vote, when it stunned the whole of Europe by winning 6.97 per cent of the vote and 20 seats in parliament amid deep anxiety about recession, unemployment and high levels of illegal immigration.

Polling data seen by the Daily Telegraph shows that Golden Dawn is on course to perform just as well or even better in the new election, which was called after the first failed to produce a government.

Immigrants groups have said that attacks in Athens have risen in recent weeks, backing up an increase in anecdotal reporting, and fear that once established in parliament the party's black t-shirted vigilantes will feel further emboldened in their campaign of intimidation.

Reza Gholami, the head of association for Afghan immigrants, said: "There are daily beatings. Most incidents are not known because immigrants do not notify authorities. They are afraid for their lives or don't have legal papers or lack the funds to pay the cost of a law suit."

There have been accusations of police bias after it emerged that 50 percent of Athens police officers voted for Golden Dawn. Suspected perpetrators are often arrested but not charged.

In the latest reported attack, a 28-year-old illegal Egyptian immigrant was beaten by men armed with clubs and iron bars as he slept on his roof to escape a summer heat wave. » | Alex Spillius, Athens | Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Greece's Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Goes Global with Political Ambitions
THE GUARDIAN: Buoyed by its meteoric domestic success, the far right party is planning to expand 'wherever there are Greeks'


Emboldened by its meteoric rise in Greece, the far-right Golden Dawn party is spreading its tentacles abroad, amid fears it is acting on its pledge to "create cells in every corner of the world". The extremist group, which forged links with British neo-Nazis when it was founded in the 1980s, has begun opening offices in Germany, Australia, Canada and the US.

The international push follows successive polls that show Golden Dawn entrenching its position as Greece's third, and fastest growing, political force. First catapulted into parliament with 18 MPs last year, the ultra-nationalists captured 11.5% support in a recent survey conducted by polling company Public Issue.

The group – whose logo resembles the swastika and whose members are prone to give Nazi salutes – has gone from strength to strength, promoting itself as the only force willing to take on the "rotten establishment". Amid rumours of backing from wealthy shipowners, it has succeeded in opening party offices across Greece.

It is also concentrating on spreading internationally, with news last month that it had opened an office in Germany and planned to set up branches in Australia. The party's spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, said it had decided to establish cells "wherever there are Greeks".

"People have understood that Chrysi Avgi [Golden Dawn] tells the truth," he told a Greek-language paper in Melbourne. "In our immediate sights and aims is the creation of an office and local organisation in Melbourne. In fact, very soon a visit of MPs to Australia is planned." » | Helena Smith in Athens | Monday, April 01, 2013

Golden Dawn MP: 'It's the Beginning of Their End'

BBC: An MP for the far-right party Golden Dawn has said that the arrest of its leader does not spell the end for the party.

Meanwhile Golden Dawn supporters have gathered outside police headquarters in the Greek capital, after Nikolaos Michaloliakos, three more MPs and 13 others were detained.

"This is only the beginning of their end, not ours," MP Artemios Matheopoulos told the BBC's Mark Lowen.

He also rejected the suggestion that his party had any involvement in the murder of the musician Pavlos Fyssas on 18 September.

A man held for the stabbing told police he was a Golden Dawn supporter, though the party strongly denies any responsibility. Watch BBC video » | Saturday, September 28, 2013

Greece Arrests Golden Dawn Leader in Crackdown on Far-right

Nikos Michalololiakos

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Greek police have arrested Nikos Michaloliakos, leader of the Golden Dawn party, as part of a wider crackdown on the far-right group.

Nikos Michaloliakos, 56, was arrested on Saturday morning on charges of founding a criminal organisation, with arrest warrants issued for dozens more party members and lawmakers, officials said.

"The Secretary General and one lawmaker of the Golden Dawn Party were arrested a short while ago after arrest warrants were issued," Greek police confirmed in a text message to journalists.

The arrest of Michaloliakos along with party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris comes as part of a wider crackdown on the far-right group after the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by an alleged Golden Dawn member, which sparked riots across the country.

Pavlos Fyssas – known by his stage name of Killah P – was stabbed to death in an Athens commuter town on September 17, triggering violent anti-fascist protests across the country. » | Andrew Marszal | Saturday, September 28, 2013

Anti-immigrant Stance Gains Ground in Greece with Golden Dawn

THE INDEPENDENT: At first glance, the shop on a nondescript street in this chaotic capital looks standard-issue military. Fatigues. Camouflage. Hunting gear. Deeper inside, the political message emerges. Black T-shirts emblazoned with modified swastikas — the symbol of the far-right Golden Dawn Party — are on sale. A proudly displayed sticker carries a favorite party slogan: "Get the Stench out of Greece."

By "stench," the Golden Dawn — which won its first-ever seats in the Greek Parliament this spring and whose popularity has soared ever since — means immigrants, broadly defined as anyone not of Greek ancestry. In the country at the epicenter of Europe's debt crisis, and where poverty and unemployment are spiking, the surplus shop doubles as one of the party's dozens of new "help bureaus." Hundreds of calls a day come in from desperate families seeking food, clothing and jobs, all of which the Golden Dawn is endeavoring to provide, with one major caveat: For Greeks only.

To fulfill its promise of a Greece for Greeks alone, the party appears willing to go to great lengths. Its supporters — in some instances with the alleged cooperation of police — stand accused of unleashing a rash of violence since the party rose to national office, including the stabbings and beatings of immigrants, ransacking an immigrant community center, smashing market stalls and breaking the windows of immigrant-owned shops. » | Anthony Faiola, The Washington Post | Athens, Greece | Sunday, October 21, 2012

Threats against Journalists: The Aggressive Tactics of the Greek Right Wing

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Greek far-right parties could end up with as much as 20 percent of the vote in Sunday's elections. The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party has intensified the xenophobic atmosphere in the country. Those who confront them are threatened with violence, journalist Xenia Kounalaki recounts.

At night, the streets leading to Omonoia Square are empty. That wasn't always the case. The area was the premier multicultural neighborhood of Athens and one of the first quarters to be gentrified. Jazz bars and Indian restaurants lined the streets, separated by the occasional rooms-by-the-hour hotel. It was a quarter full of immigrants, drug addicts and African prostitutes, but also of journalists, ambitious young artists and teenagers from private schools.

Today, the immigrants stay home once night falls. They are afraid of groups belonging to the "angry citizens," a kind of militia that beats up foreigners and claims to help the elderly withdraw money from cash machines without being robbed. Such groups are the product of an initiative started by the neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi -- Golden Dawn -- the party which has perpetrated pogroms in Agios Panteleimon, another Athens neighborhood with a large immigrant population.

There are now three outwardly xenophobic parties in Greece. According to recent surveys, together they could garner up to 20 percent of the vote in elections on Sunday: the anti-Semitic party LAOS stands to win 4 percent; the nationalist party Independent Greeks -- a splinter group of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party -- is forecast to win 11 percent; and the right extremists of Golden Dawn could end up with between 5 and 7 percent.

My name is Xenia, the hospitable. Greece itself should really be called Xenia: Tourism, emigration and immigration are important elements of our history. But hospitality is no longer a priority in our country, a fact which the ugly presence of Golden Dawn makes clear. » | Xenia Kounalaki | Thursday, May 03, 2012

Related »

Greece Moves to Ban Far-right Golden Dawn Party

THE GUARDIAN: Government to table emergency legislation after murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas at ultra-nationalist rally

The Greek government has hinted that it will seek to ban Golden Dawn after the far-right party was linked to the murder of a leading leftwing musician in Athens.

As violence erupted on the streets and demonstrators protested after the fatal stabbing of Pavlos Fyssas, a prominent anti-fascist, the public order minister, Nikos Dendias, cancelled a trip abroad saying the government would table emergency legislation that would seek to outlaw the group.

Amid renewed political tensions between the extreme left and right, the new law would re-evaluate what constituted a criminal gang, he said.

"Neither the state will tolerate, nor society accept, acts and practices that undermine the legal system," the minister told reporters, adding that the attack showed "in the clearest way the [party's] intentions".

Earlier in the day, police raided Golden Dawn offices across the country, with media reporting running street battles outside branches in Crete, Thessaloniki and Patras.

Voted into the Greek parliament for the first time last June, the neo-fascist Golden Dawn has been widely accused of employing violence to further its ratings in the polls. » | Helena Smith in Athens | Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Golden Dawn Threatens Hospital Raids against Immigrants in Greece
THE GUARDIAN: Far-right party says it will throw immigrants and their children out on the street, as some hospitals run short of supplies

In an atmosphere that has become increasingly electric before Greece's crucial election, the far-right Golden Dawn has ratcheted up the rhetoric by threatening to remove immigrants and their children from hospitals and kindergartens.

Earning loud applause at an election campaign rally in Athens, Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros said: "If Chrysi Avgi [Golden Dawn] gets into parliament [as polls predict], it will carry out raids on hospitals and kindergartens and it will throw immigrants and their children out on the street so that Greeks can take their place."

Medical supplies and beds at some hospitals are running desperately short. The governor of the state-run Nikea hospital, Theodoros Roupas, called on doctors to stop non-essential surgical interventions because of a critical shortage of gloves, syringes and gauze. The order was revoked when Roupas found emergency supplies later in the day.

"The situation is really critical and getting worse every day," said Dr Panaghiotis Papanikolaou, a neurosurgeon at the hospital. "There is not enough medical staff to cope and huge shortages of supplies. There's no money to even service scanners and surgical microscopes … we're talking about a major healthcare crisis – not in the making, it is happening now." » | Helena Smith in Athens | Tuesday, June 12, 2012

GUARDIAN VIDEO: Greece on the breadline: Jon Henley's euro debt tales » | Jon Henley, Alex Healey and Mustafa Khalili | Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Press Freedom Alarm Over Greek Party's Treatment Of Journalists
GUARDIAN – GREENSLADE BLOG: International press freedom watchdogs are watching the political situation in Greece with growing alarm following the treatment of journalists by the far-right Golden Dawn party.

After Golden Dawn obtained 7% of the vote, a press conference was staged by its leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos. Before his arrival, waiting reporters were ordered by party members to stand as a sign of respect.

Journalists who refused to do so were then expelled from the room.

This move came as little surprise to the Greek journalist Xenia Kounalaki. Last month, she wrote an article about Golden Dawn in the German weekly Der Spiegel, which prompted an attack on her on the party's website. Read on and comment » | Roy Greenslade | Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Related »

Golden Dawn MP Christos Pappas Surrenders to Greek Police

THE GUARDIAN: Far-right party's parliamentary spokesman walks into police headquarters 24 hours after arrests of key members

A Greek MP said to be the second in command of the far-right Golden Dawn party has surrendered after authorities arrested the organisation's leader and other key members on charges of running a criminal gang.

Christos Pappas, the party's parliamentary spokesman and unrepentant holder of many of its most hardline views, handed himself over to police more than 24 hours after an unprecedented crackdown on the neo-fascist group began.

Appearing at Athens's central police headquarters in a taxi, the politician insisted the vehemently anti-immigrant party would "survive … the political persecution" it was being subjected to.

"I present myself voluntarily. I have nothing to hide, nothing to fear," he told reporters waiting outside the building where five other Golden Dawn MPs, including Nikos Michaloliakos, its leader, were taken into custody on Saturday. "The truth will shine. Nationalism will win. We will wage a non-stop political struggle and we will survive."

Like other members who appeared in court in handcuffs hours after their arrest, Pappas faces charges of murder, money laundering, extortion and intent to commit crimes. » | Helena Smith in Athens | Sunday, September 29, 2013

Party Leader of Greece's Far-right Golden Dawn Arrested

Nikos Michaloliakos, the leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn Party has been arrested by Greek police along with a party lawmaker following the fatal stabbing of an anti-racism rapper by a Golden Dawn supporter.

L’article en relation avec cette vidéo »

Golden Dawn...or Dusk? Greek Far-right Party Faces Criminal Charges

The leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party is set to appear before magistrates to face charges of criminal activity. Four senior members of the group have already made preliminary court appearances, three of them were released pending trial. A clampdown on the political part was sparked by the killing of an anti-fascist musician last month, allegedly carried out by a member of Golden Dawn.

Golden Dawn Takes Advantage of Recession Ravaged Greece
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Fascist gangs are turning Athens into a city of shifting front lines, seizing on crimes and local protests to promote their own movement, by claiming to be the defenders of recession ravaged Greece.

Thugs wearing the black T-shirts of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party are carrying out attacks on immigrant markets and in public squares, according to the United Nations, with victims speaking of areas in the capital which are now strictly off limits.

Malik Abdulbasset, an Egyptian-born shopkeeper, found himself the target of one of the mobs on Wednesday night after the barber across the road was stabbed during a robbery.

Golden Dawn members led a crowd of enraged locals in a protest on Mikhail Voda St that turned violent despite the presence of riot police.

While no one witnessed the attack on the barber, residents were adamant the assailant was black.

After battering his Egyptian assistant, the mob turned on Mr Abdulbasset, who had defied police to keep his shop open.

"I had to turn and point to my Greek children and my Greek wife and say, look I am Greek, we are Greek, if you want to kill us we cannot stop you but you are killing your own."

The riot police watched on but did not intervene and threats of more protests were pasted on nearby doors. » | Damien McElroy, Athens | Friday, November 02, 2012