Golden Dawn Is Running In Greece's Elections Again. Here's Why That's Scary

ATHENS -- Golden Dawn, Greece's extremist far-right party, appeared on the political scene almost 30 years ago, but has thrived during the past crisis years.

Here's what you need to know about it:

The History

Nikos Michaloliakos, a former mathematics student who had been a member of extremist right-wing youth organizations since his teenage years and was imprisoned for participating in bomb attacks in Athens, launched “Golden Dawn,” a national-socialist journal supportive of Greece's former military junta, in 1980. Five years later, he founded a political party with the same name.

From the start, Michaloliakos’ program and semiotics were quintessentially nationalist and racist, strongly reminiscent of Nazi ideology. Golden Dawn was recognized as a political party in 1993, but because of its radical beliefs remained marginal at first.

In the 1990s, the party gained some attention when it opposed the name change of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the “Republic of Macedonia” -- a designation Greeks associate with the territories in the north of Greece -- and because of the rise of violence by extreme-right street gangs that were behind attacks on demonstrators and left-wing students.

Golden Dawn participated for the first time in elections in 1996, receiving 0.1 percent of the vote. They didn’t participate again in elections until 2009, when they won almost 0.3 percent of the vote.

Golden Dawn's big boost occurred under the conditions of harsh economic crisis, biting poverty and surging unemployment that erupted in Greece in 2009, and grew after the country signed up for a number of bailouts by its European partners. As the party made vocal accusations against “corrupt” politicians of the old status quo and condemned the austerity brought on by the bailouts, Golden Dawn saw its popularity rise among the disaffected. In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Golden Dawn won 6.9 percent of the popular vote; in elections this January, it came in third behind Syriza and New Democracy.

The Murder

In September 2013, anti-fascist hip hop artist Pavlos Fyssas was murdered by a Golden Dawn member in the city of Piraeus. According to investigators, the perpetrator, Giorgos Roupakias, had been in direct contact with top Golden Dawn party members during and after the murder.

Although Golden Dawn has denied all involvement in the Fyssas murder, several high-standing party members, including party leader Michaloliakos, have been charged in the wake of the investigation of the case. They now face several accusations, including of forming a criminal organization and being responsible for assaults on immigrants.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author:  Danae Leivada