Friday

31st Mar 2023

Opinion

The story behind Golden Dawn's success

  • Golden Dawn fliers - the party came third in last week's European elections in Greece (Photo: wikimedia commons)

Political analysts, the media and political parties have been trying to account for the shocking rise of the far-right Golden Dawn party, which last week became Greece's third most important political party after winning almost 10 percent in the EU vote.

The key question is who or what is responsible for the anti-immigrant party's growing support.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

After all, members of the party are being prosecuted on the charge of creating and participating in a criminal organisation linked to a range of offences, including two murders and violent attacks against migrants.

And many of the party's MPs, including its leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos, are in prison awaiting trial.

But to those closely monitoring the situation in Greece, the results did not come as a surprise.

Intolerant political rhetoric, hostile government policies toward unpopular and marginalised groups such as migrants, and the failure to tackle racist violence allowed Golden Dawn to blossom.

It is true that the presence of destitute migrants living on the streets has brought disconcerting change to Greek cities, particularly Athens, where Golden Dawn enjoys the most popularity.

Years of failure to adopt coherent migration policies, chronic mismanagement of the asylum system, and the deep economic crisis have exacerbated the problem.

As Golden Dawn grew in popularity over the past four years, the response of the government was to adopt heavy-handed immigration measures in an effort to win voters back.

But such measures have only given a veneer of legitimacy to Golden Dawn's rhetoric. This has in turn helped to push the government to adopt further policies targeting immigrants.

In the 2012 national elections, Prime Minister Antonia Samaras campaigned in part on a pledge to reclaim Greek cities from immigrants.

"Greece today has become a centre for illegal immigrants," he said at the time. "We must take back our cities ... There are many diseases and I am not only speaking about Athens, but elsewhere too."

Months after he was elected, the Samaras government began Operation Xenios Zeus, a massive police operation against irregular immigration and crime in Athens.

Tens of thousands of people presumed to be undocumented migrants (based on little more than their physical appearance) have been subjected to abusive stops and searches on the streets, and hours-long detention at police stations.

Xenophobic violence

Between August 2012 and June 2013 – the most recent period for which government statistics are available – police stopped almost 124,000 people of foreign origin and took them to a police station. Only 6,910 (5.6 percent) were found to be in Greece unlawfully.

And while xenophobic violence has become a stark reality over the past few years, the government for too long failed to respond effectively to protect victims and hold their attackers to account.

Greece has taken some positive steps recently with the creation of specialised police units to tackle racist violence across the country and the appointment of a prosecutor on hate crimes in Athens.

Racial motivation was introduced in 2008 as an aggravating circumstance in the committing of a crime, yet the provision was applied for the first time only in November 2013.

In two other landmark convictions, in March and April 2014, for a series of attacks on Pakistani men and the murder in Athens of a 27-year-old worker from Pakistan, the court failed to classify the acts as racially motivated.

By not improving the scope and application of the law, the government and the justice system are failing to send a strong message against hate crimes.

The government needs to institute reforms to encourage reporting of violent hate crimes, protect victims, and ensure appropriate action by the police and judiciary to counter hate violence.

Yet a draft anti-racism law has been pending in Parliament since November 2013, hostage to political infighting and Golden Dawn's popularity. The bill focuses on hate speech and incitement to violence, but could and should be improved by parliament and then passed.

If the Greek government is truly looking for answers to Golden Dawn's success, it should look at the anti-immigrant policies that have led to a climate in which the party has blossomed.

The response to intolerance should never be more intolerance.

The writer monitors Greece for Human Rights Watch.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

Exclusive

Greek Nazi MEP upset he won't get EU parliament stipend

The EU Parliament suspended MEPs' €323 daily allowance due to the Brussels pandemic. But neo-Nazi MEP Ioannis Lagos finds that unfair and wants parliament to create "a central register in a Covid-19-free place" so he can still pocket the funds.

Why do 83% of Albanians want to leave Albania?

As autocracies collapsed across Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, Albanians had high expectations that democracy and a free-market economy would bring a better life. But Albania's transition from dictatorship to democracy has been uneven and incomplete.

The overlooked 'crimes against children' ICC arrest warrant

An unprecedented component of this announcement has received less attention: the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin's commissioner for children's rights. Lvova-Belova is accused of deporting and unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Column

What does China really want? Perhaps we could try asking

Perhaps even more surprising to the West was the fact that the Iran-Saudi Arabia deal was not brokered by the United States, or the European Union, but by the People's Republic of China. Since when was China mediating peace agreements?

Latest News

  1. EU sending anti-coup mission to Moldova in May
  2. Firms will have to reveal and close gender pay-gap
  3. Why do 83% of Albanians want to leave Albania?
  4. Police violence in rural French water demos sparks protests
  5. Work insecurity: the high cost of ultra-fast grocery deliveries
  6. The overlooked 'crimes against children' ICC arrest warrant
  7. EU approves 2035 phaseout of polluting cars and vans
  8. New measures to shield the EU against money laundering

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Azerbaijan Embassy9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting
  2. EFBWWEU Social Dialogue review – publication of the European Commission package and joint statement of ETUFs
  3. Oxfam InternationalPan Africa Program Progress Report 2022 - Post Covid and Beyond
  4. WWFWWF Living Planet Report
  5. Europan Patent OfficeHydrogen patents for a clean energy future: A global trend analysis of innovation along hydrogen value chains

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us