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Greek neo-Nazis return to court – Neil Bar

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Greek neo-Nazis return to court – Neil Bar

Nikólaos Michaloliákos, 62, is an angry man. He has been angry for a long time, since he was just 16. That is, since, in July 1976, the military junta (the regime of the colonels) which governed Greece since April 1967, is replaced by a democratically elected government.

While for many in the West the fall of a military dictatorship, replaced by a modern liberal democracy, is considered a positive development, Michaloliákos was not of the same opinion. On the eve of the revolution, he is arrested in front of the British embassy in Athens for violently protesting against the ousting of the colonels. And it is then that he embarks on his political path.

When he gets out of prison, he begins to rally supporters with ideas similar to his, with whom in 1980 he founded a magazine called Chrysi Avgi, Golden Dawn, from which he explains to his few readers that democracy is a bad thing and that dictatorships are the better form of government. After several failed attempts to enter far-right parties, Michaloliákos takes his group one step further, founding the Golden Dawn People’s Association, with an ideological platform that makes it totally clear that its militants have neo-Nazi positions.

Golden Dawn members claimed, and continue to claim, that Greece is controlled by a democratic tyranny. More specifically, they argue that the liberal policies of the main parties allow foreign elements to infiltrate the country, leading to a robbery of the homeland and the contamination of the race and cultural heritage of Greece. The 2015 refugee crisis in Europe encouraged the neo-Nazi party to spread its message even more strenuously, in the hope of finding a more favorable reception.

A political anomaly
In addition to the use of Nazi symbols, the Golden Dawn militants believe that the Greek nation rests on a foundation of racial superiority, and that it is a direct continuation of the glorious Greek race that in antiquity spawned figures such as that of the Spartan king Leonidas. and Alexander the Great. They also argue that Greek society has been ruined by years of political, cultural and moral degeneration, and that modern Greece is only a pale shadow of the nation’s glorious past. The militants claim that they will be the ones who will fight to reach that “golden dawn” in which, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Greece will rise from the ruins of what it has become and regain the lost glory of its ancestors.

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But for all its ideology and desire to become something great, for much of its existence Golden Dawn remained only a marginal political anomaly. In 1996, the first time the party ran for elections, it won just 0.1 percent of the vote (about seven thousand votes). But then something changed.

In 2008, Greece plunged into a severe economic crisis, from which it has only recently managed to recover to some extent. In circumstances reminiscent of the events in Germany in the 1930s, Golden Dawn saw the opportunity and leapt, promising to pass economic reforms, punish those responsible for the crisis and restore the broken pride of the Greeks. Meanwhile, while the pantries of the Greeks remained empty, the movement sent teams across the country to deliver food packages, helped elderly women cross the street, and spoke proudly of hope in a country teetering on the brink of despair.

And it worked. In the 2012 elections the party rose to 6.97 percent of the vote (440,985 preferences), becoming the third party in parliament. In the 2014 elections for the European Parliament, nearly one in ten Greeks (9.4 percent) voted for the party, attracting attention from around the world. Basically, the Nazis had never come this close to power after the third reich.

Several studies have tried to understand how Greece, which suffered enormously under the Nazi occupation during the Second World War, could have allowed a party with such strong neo-Nazi characters to become so strong. Most have come to the conclusion that Golden Dawn has become so powerful not because it is a neo-Nazi party, but despite this. There are very few Greeks who identify with the party’s racist and ultranationalist ideology, but have chosen to vote them to “shake up the system”, thinking that only an aggressive and utterly brazen party like Golden Dawn could really generate a good jolt . They had no idea how good this idea was.

On 18 September 2013, the Athens police received an urgent call to intervene in a café in the Keratsini neighborhood. When they arrived, police officers found Pavlos Fyssas, a 34-year-old rapper known as Killah P and linked to the Greek left, lying on the ground with severe stab wounds. Before he died, Fyssas managed to name his killer, a well-known activist from Golden Dawn, who was arrested on the spot. The first phone call the suspect made from prison was to Michaloliákos’ office.

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During the investigation into the murder of the anti-fascist rapper, the police raided the offices of the neo-Nazi movement, confiscating evidence that led to an investigation into other activists from Golden Dawn, suspected of involvement in cases of violent attacks against refugees and immigrants, hitherto unsolved. Some of the movement’s MPs were discovered in possession of Third Reich souvenirs.

Greece went into an uproar over Fyssas’ murder. As it became clear that Golden Dawn was involved, the Greeks turned against the movement. The public ostracism was so vast that in the 2019 general election the party failed to cross the minimum threshold and was swept off the political scene.

On the legal front, the Golden Dawn also suffered a lethal blow. In October 2020, after a five-year trial on charges of murder, violent assault on migrants and left-wing activists, and illegal possession of weapons, dozens of activists and all party leaders, including the leading exponent Michaloliákos, were convicted of belonging to and leading a criminal organization. On that day, the cry “Out of the Nazis” and the exultation in front of the courtroom rang out throughout Europe. Golden Dawn ceased to exist as a party and its leader, found in possession of illegal weapons and ammunition, was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Although the defendants were tried for their actions and not for their ideology, the proceedings against them have been called the most important trial against Nazis since the Nuremberg one. But despite the sentences and long prison sentences received, the Golden Dawn militants had not yet had their last word.

In fact, on June 15, 2022, a new trial against them began, after the court had upheld the appeal. In the Greek legal system, especially in cases with a high public profile, if a convict’s appeal is upheld, the judicial process starts all over again before a larger panel of judges, five instead of the three in the first trial.

Therefore in the next few years, in groups, fifty defendants will once again return to the bar. Forty of them are serving or have already served heavy sentences in prison, including seven former deputies and some convicted of complicity in murder.

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Back in the limelight
The most important defendants are Michaloliákos and his wife Eleni Zaroúlia; Ioannias Lagos, who was elected to the European parliament and as such was protected from immunity until he was expelled and extradited to Greece a year ago to serve a 13-year sentence; and Chrístos Pappás, who until a few months ago had managed to escape the police.

The appeals trials were not a surprise to anyone in Greece, but the news is certainly disturbing the sleep of the families of the victims attacked by Golden Dawn. Their great fear is that some of the appellants will see their sentences reduced, or that they may even be released.

During the previous trial, which lasted for years, most of the defendants were on the loose and their lawyers had an interest in dragging the proceedings as long as possible. Now that the accused are already in jail, the ongoing trial is expected to end in less than two years.

But while the plaintiffs hope to be released or see their sentences reduced, the prosecution also took the initiative by appealing in turn and arguing that the first sentences were too lenient and should be increased.

The golden dawn political label has become toxic, and few still want to deal with it. Unlike the first trial, when they still had political power and economic resources, the Golden Dawn militants come to this trial from a position of weakness, and many of them have asked to be represented by a public defender.

“The outcome will be enormously significant,” Petros Constantinou, coordinator of Keerfa, the very active Greek anti-fascist front, told the Guardian. “At a time when the war in Ukraine has rekindled the minds of fascists across Europe, the message must be zero tolerance.”

Michaloliákos will not be present in the classroom due to health problems. The Golden Dawn leader, also known for being a fervent antivaccinist, was hospitalized earlier this year with covid-19 and was only recently transferred from intensive care to a rehabilitation ward.

(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)

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