2012-09-20

When Greece finally sees the dawn, will it be Golden?

It goes without saying that social mood is extremely negative in Greece. It can get worse, but I think Greece is at the point where social mood is negative enough to be background (except if it suddenly rebounds). Now is the time where the actual events take over. In other words, Greece now has enough potential energy to go radical at any moment and events will depend on human action.

Support for Golden Dawn on the Rise
Golden Dawn’s rhetoric is often offensive. According to Andy Dabilis of the Southeast European Times, they have referred to the disabled as “undesirable” and have put up “hate” flyers around Greece’s gay districts. Dabilis also reports that Golden Dawn members have pushed for Greek to serve only Greeks.

Still, support for the party continues to increase. Part of the reason for this may be that Golden Dawn party members have given Greek citizens free food – a welcome gesture during Greece’s long recession. According to Derek Gatopoulos of The Associated Press, Golden Dawn members passed out “milk, pasta, potatoes and olive oil” to Greek citizens who showed them ID cards, proving that they were in the country legally.
Golden Dawn is clearly a fascist party, but people are so used to hearing right-wing politicians called fascists that the effect has weakened, as in the Boy Who Cried Wolf. What Greeks see is a party helping the people, even when it is not in power, against the ruling classes that are sending the country deeper into the abyss while tossing around the same worn out phrases. And the radicalism of the party is a plus: Golden Dawn's behavior is a clear signal that if handed the reigns of power, they would not suddenly do an about face and kiss the ass of the EU, ECB and IMF. The Greek people know Golden Dawn's foot would be firmly kicking their asses out of Greece. The net result is that despite all their flaws, and even because of a few of them, they are growing in popularity. To wit:

Greece's Golden Dawn party embracing extremist role
But its leaders have been anything but parliamentarian after taking their seats. Several of its MPs took part in a party raid, smashing immigrants' stalls at a local fair, causing some to call for authorities to pull their political immunity.

The neo-Nazi party embraces an extremist ideology. They promised to rid the country of illegal immigrants and plant landmines on the borders to make sure no more came in. They put up hate flyers around Athens' gay club district. They said people with disabilities were undesirable. They even threatened to unleash "stormtroopers" on Greece.

...George Tzogopoulos, a research fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy in Athens, said the party's popularity should not be a surprise.

"Its rise is a normal phenomenon in a time of crisis," he told SETimes. "When people suffer, they tend to endorse the rhetoric of extreme parties."

Yiorgos Tsalikis, 45, a clerk at a fast food outlet in an Athens neighborhood said many Greeks who support Golden Dawn don't like what it stands for, but have given up on the country's leaders. "It's because of the despair people feel, they are desperate and don't trust politicians," he told SETimes.
For all Golden Dawn's extremism, it is also tapping into a far more moderate section of the electorate that is upset at the policies of those in power. Golden Dawn is a radical party, but it would be radical for any party to propose actually deporting illegal immigrants, or reducing/halting immigration. It would be radical for any party to propose getting out of the euro. The popularity of Golden Dawn has a lot to do with their lack of competition on these issues.

Golden Dawn in Greece
Last week, a new wave of attacks shocked politicians and citizens alike. A Golden Dawn deputy assaulted, inside the Parliament building, a delegate of Syriza, the left-wing party and main opposition. Several more Golden Dawn parliamentarians, leading two groups of neo-nazi thugs, attacked foreign-born street vendors in the Athens suburb of Rafina during a church festival and in a farmers’ market in the town Missolonghi.

Missolonghi is a potent symbol that resonates strongly in Greece: the heroic exodus of its besieged inhabitants against an overwhelmingly stronger Ottoman army in 1826, during the Greek War of Independence, inspired the poem that became Greece’s national anthem.

After the Greek media expressed indignation, Parliament was mobilized and the Government decided to take action. The subject was brought before the Parliament’s Ethics’ Committee which condemned the attacks, though the parties of the Left expressed their disapproval, because the resolution’s wording was not stringent enough.

The Minister of Public Order Nikos Dendias asked the Police to come up with a strategy in order to deal with right-wing extremists and racist attacks. According to media reports, police commissioners were given the go-ahead to arrest even Members of Parliament in case they commit offenses such as usurpation of authority or aggravated assault. Security Police were ordered to have Golden Dawn headquarters and local branches under observation, while websites carrying racist and fascist propaganda will be under surveillance by the Cyber Crime Unit.

Yet many think this will not be enough, and the problem will get more severe as long as conditions in Greece continue to get worse: salaries and pensions have been reduced dramatically and public spending has been slashed while unemployment and crime have gone up. The country is facing at once an economic, a social and a political crisis. Some analysts, looking at the current situation, even detect shades of Weimar, Germany’s failed first republic.
The key point here is that Greece doesn't have a Golden Dawn problem, Greece has an economic problem and refuses to deal with it. The more Golden Dawn causes the government to attack it, no matter whether their antics are deserving of attention or not, the more Golden Dawn will point to the worsening crisis and the government's focus on them, rather than the economy.

New poll shows popularity of Greece's Golden Dawn at 22 percent
Whilst politicians are held in low regard and more than half of Greek citizens are so disillusioned with the political process that 54 percent no longer trust any political party, there are a few notable changes in the political landscape.

A report in Skai.gr shows that the popularity of the the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn has risen 10 points since May, winning the party a popularity score of 22 percent. Moreover, their share of the vote as evidenced in polls for September, now stands at 13 percent.
Golden Dawn is on the verge of going mainstream. Moving forward, it will depend on whether the government can satisfy the Greek peoples' demands. Bold policy moves, such as exiting the euro, will diffuse Golden Dawn's support. Staying the course could catapult them into power.

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