REUTERS/YoRgoS KaRahaliS Greece’s Far-right Party Goes On .

Golden dawnOn the march: supportersof Golden Dawn, which nowlies third in the polls, sing thenational anthem at a rally in MayREUTERS/Yorgos KarahalisGreece’s far-right partygoes on the offensiveGolden Dawn makes further gains amidthe nation’s economic collapseBy Dina KyriakidouATHENS, November 12, 2012SPECIAL REPORT 1

Golden dawn Greece’s far-right party goes on the offensiveArm raised in a Nazi-style salute,the leader of Greece’s fastest-risingpolitical party surveyed hundredsof young men in black T-shirts as they exploded into cheers. Their battle cry reverberated through the night: Blood! Honour!Golden Dawn!“We may sometimes raise our hand thisway, but these hands are clean, not dirty.They haven’t stolen,” shouted Nikolaos Mihaloliakos as he stood, floodlit, in front ofabout 2,000 diehard party followers fillingan open-air amphitheatre at Goudi park, aformer military camp near Athens.“We were dozens, then a few hundred.Now we’re thousands and it’s only the beginning,” cried the leader of Golden Dawn,a far-right party that is seeing its supportsoar amid Greece’s economic collapse. Lastmonth’s rally revealed the party, which describes itself as nationalist and pledges toexpel all illegal foreigners, has a new-foundsense of triumph, even a swagger, that somefind menacing.Riding a wave of public anger at corruptpoliticians, austerity and illegal immigration, Golden Dawn has seen its popularity double in a few months. A survey byVPRC, an independent polling company,put the party’s support at 14 percent in October, compared with the seven percent itwon in June’s election.Political analysts see no immediatehalt to its meteoric ascent. They warn thatGolden Dawn, which denies being neoNazi despite openly adopting similar ideology and symbols, may lure as many as onein three Greek voters.“As long as the political system doesn’tchange and doesn’t put an end to corruption, this phenomenon will not bestemmed,” said Costas Panagopoulos, chiefof ALCO, another independent pollingcompany. “Golden Dawn can potentiallytap up to 30 percent of voters.”The party now lies third in the polls, behind conservative New Democracy and themain opposition, the radical leftist Syriza.Nationalist fervour: the party boasts of military efficiency, and some of its supporters, seen hereduring an election rally, favour black shirts and straight-arm salutes. REUTERS/Yannis BehrakisViolent behaviour by Golden Dawn members, who often stroll through run-downAthens neighbourhoods harassing immigrants, seems to boost rather than hurt theparty’s standing.As the government imposes yet moreausterity on an enraged public, the collapseof the ruling conservative-leftist coalitionremains on the political horizon. The possibility that Golden Dawn could capturesecond place in a snap election is slim butreal, say pollsters.Golden Dawn’s target issimple. We want the absolutemajority in parliament so wecan replace the constitutionwith our own.Ilias Kasidiarisa Golden Dawn lawmakerAnalysts believe that, ultimately, theparty lacks the broad appeal and structureneeded to gain mass traction. In WorldWar Two Greece suffered massacres andfamine in its fight against the Nazis, andthe spectre of the 1967-1974 military juntastill hangs heavy over its modern politics.So why are many Greeks now turning to aparty whose emblems and rhetoric, criticssay, resemble Hitler’s?Golden Dawn denies any such resemblance. In an interview with Reuters at anopen-air cafe in the Athens district of Papagou, a traditional neighbourhood for military personnel, Ilias Panagiotaros, a GoldenDawn lawmaker and spokesman, explainedthe party’s appeal. “Golden Dawn is theonly institution in this country that works.Everything else has stopped working or ispartially working,” he said.“We operate like a well-organisedarmy unit, because the military is the bestSPECIAL REPORT 2

Golden dawn Greece’s far-right party goes on the offensiveinstitution in any country.”Short, squat and combative, Mihaloliakos once praised Hitler and denied theNazi gas chambers existed. A former special forces commando in the Greek army,he met the leaders of the Greek militaryjunta while in prison for carrying illegalweapons and explosives as a member of afar-right group in 1979.When pressed on such issues, GoldenDawn says they are all in the past and it islooking to the future.For years after Mihaloliakos founded theparty in 1985 it remained marginal: in the2009 elections Golden Dawn won just 0.29percent of the vote, or fewer than 20,000votes. Yet in June, the party amassed votesfrom across the political spectrum, wipingout the more moderate nationalist LAOSparty and winning support from as far leftas the communist KKE party, pollsters said.Now it is stealing votes from New Democracy, which flip-flopped on the international bailout keeping Greece afloat and,after coming to power, imposed harsh cutsinstead of relief measures. Though GoldenDawn attracts mainly urban male voters upto 35 years old, the party is also gaining itsshare of women and the elderly, primarilythose suffering unemployment or fallingliving standards, say pollsters.Part of its appeal is down to the sort ofwelfare work that Hamas, the Palestinianparty, does in Gaza. Golden Dawn distributes food in poor neighbourhoods, helps oldladies get money safely from ATMs - andhas also set up a Greeks-only blood bank.One story repeated at cafes, but not verified, is that of a Greek whose house is takenover by immigrants. When he asks the police for help, he is given the Golden Dawnnumber. Not only do they throw out thesquatters but deliver the house clean andpainted, the tale goes.“I voted for Golden Dawn for the firsttime in June and I will vote for them againbecause they are the only ones who reallycare about Greece,” said 45-year-old Deme-Changing fortunes of Greek partiesShare of vote in last three elections and voting intentionaccording to recent pollsELECTION RESULTSPOLL RESULTSSyriza30%NewDemocracy2010Golden Dawn0MayJuneJulyPasokAug.Sept.Oct.Source: Greek interior ministry and polling companies Pulse, MRB and VPRCtra, an unemployed Athenian, as she walkedthrough the party’s rally at Goudi park. “Allthe other politicians have sold us out.”The gathering was a chance for the party to relish achievements and flex muscle.Well-built youths in black T-shirts emblazoned with the Swastika-like party logostood in military formation at the entrance.Two men stood to attention on both sidesCombative: Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, leader ofGolden Dawn, said on a recent TV programmethat Hitler was a ‘great personality of the 20thcentury’. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakisof the podium, flagged with a big signreading “Getting the stink off the country”,while speakers delivered patriotic oratories.A short film showed highlights of theyear, which included attacks on immigrantstreet vendors, clashes with police outsideparliament and food distribution to thepoor. When the film showed Golden Dawnlawmaker Ilias Kasidiaris slapping a femalecommunist lawmaker, Liana Kanelli, acrossthe face on live TV, youths bellowed profanities against the victim.“Golden Dawn’s target is simple. Wewant the absolute majority in parliamentso we can replace the constitution with ourown,” Kasidiaris told the crowd. “It willthen be easy to immediately arrest and deport all illegal immigrants.”Pollsters were ready to write off theparty when Kasidiaris slapped Kanelli after she swatted him with some papers during a dispute he was having with a Syrizalawmaker. Kasidiaris says he was defendinghimself; Kanelli says she was coming to theSPECIAL REPORT 3

Golden dawn Greece’s far-right party goes on the offensiveaid of the Syriza lawmaker after Kasidiarishad thrown water at her.Painting Golden Dawn as an aberrationstemming from the financial crisis, pollsterssaid the party’s support would dwindle. Theopposite happened - the party gained 3 to 4percentage points in polls as a direct resultof the Kasidiaris incident.“In this slap, Greek society saw thewhole, immoral political establishment getslapped,” said Panagiotaros, a thick-set manwith a shaved head and a goatee. “Peoplethought: finally!”‘SPEAK GREEK OR DIE’In parliament Golden Dawn’s 18 lawmakers cluster in a rear corner of the marblecovered hall, but make no attempt to hidetheir ideology. Recently, Panagiotaros askedthe welfare ministry to find out which babies admitted to state day-care centres wereactually Greek. Eleni Zaroulia, wife of party leader Mihaloliakos and also a lawmaker,described immigrants as “every sort of subhuman who invades our country carryingall sorts of diseases.”Artemis Matthaiopoulos, anotherGolden Dawn lawmaker, was formerlythe bassist for a heavy metal band calledPogrom, which produced songs such as“Speak Greek or Die” and “Auschwitz”.Rights groups say racist attacks inGreece have been surging, but that manyimmigrants are reluctant to report thembecause of their illegal status or mistrust ofthe police.The United Nations High Commissionerfor Refugees (UNHCR) and other groupsrecorded 87 racist attacks in the first ninemonths of the year (comparable statistics forprevious years are not available). Perpetratorsoften used clubs or crowbars and sometimeslarge dogs, say rights groups. In May an AlbaFollow Reuters Special Reportson Facebook:facebook.com/ReutersRevealsnian was attacked with a sword by a maskedmotorcycle rider; in August a young Iraqi wasstabbed to death.“This is not even the tip of the iceberg there are even more attacks that are not recorded anywhere,” said Daphne Kapetanakiof the UNHCR.Victims or witnesses sometimes identifyGolden Dawn members as the attackers. Javied Aslam, head of the Pakistani Community in Greece organisation, estimates thatabout 400 Pakistanis have been attackedin the past eight months by Golden Dawnsupporters. “There is a huge climate of fear,”he said. “People don’t leave their houses andWe will seal the borders butdo it properly, not the nonsensethey are doing now. Then we willimmediately deport all illegals.Ilias Panagiotaroa Golden Dawn lawmaker, describingwhat the party would do if it won powerworkers who leave for their jobs in the morning fear they may not come back home.”Golden Dawn strongly denies any involvement in racist attacks. Several of itsmembers have been detained in relation tosuch assaults, but have been released for lackof evidence.One Nigerian victim, 31-year-old Confidence Ordu, said he was beaten up by GoldenDawn supporters in broad daylight in Athensin January as passersby looked on withoutintervening. Ordu, who was granted asylumwhen he came to Greece five years ago, saidhe was walking out of a central Athens subway station when four men dressed in blackattacked him, shouting “You don’t belonghere. Greece is for Greeks”.“I tried to fight back but there were four ofthem,” said Ordu. “They kept punching andhitting me while I was on the ground. Therewas nothing I could do. So I acted like I wasdead until they left. I had blood all over myface and arms.”Bleeding profusely, he went to a nearby police station. He says police first demanded toDangerous streets: Immigrants try to calm other immigrants during a rally to protest against theincreasing harassment they face in Greece. REUTERS/John KolesidisSPECIAL REPORT 4