Golden Dawn Spokesperson and MP, Ilias Kasidiaris, attacking 2 female deputies of rival parties. His attacks were broadcast on live TV, but he has yet to be tried.
Golden Dawn, or “Chrysi Avyi,” received much attention from worldwide media sources when it won 7% of the national vote in that country’s June elections. More infamous is economic depression that has besieged the country’s citizens. As is often the case–in present pockets across Eastern Europe, Spain, and in the towns of former East Germany–fascism always seems to find a foothold–and scapegoats–in cultures where such turmoil and struggle falls upon working and poor classes of people.
Founded in 1993 and exiled to the far margins of political obscurity by all those who value a free and open society, Golden Dawn’s recent rise to prominence parallels the renewed interests in fascism and Nazism in those other pockets of Europe. Ultra-nationalist and fervent believers in Hellenism, Chrysi Ayvi stands upon a towering trash heap of rhetoric–it’s all the fault of immigrants, the non-Greeks, the ruling elites, and the sycophantic journalists who amplify their lies as truths for the average citizen.
Some of its solutions to such “problems” include shipping all immigrants into work camps and lining the country’s shared border with Turkey with landmines. Excited by such proposals, the neo-Nazi party’s advances were watched closely by various white nationalist, white supremacist, and nativist/anti-immgrant groups here in America.
Golden Dawn’s leader, Nikoloas Michaloliakos, (foreground, in the short-sleeve dress shirt)
“All rise! All rise! Show your respect!” screamed the body guards of Nikoloas Michaloliakos, the party’s leader and a fervent Holocaust denier, as he entered a victory press conference post-election. His guards physically forced journalists to their feet, ejecting those who refused to stand. Certainly, his first entrance into the legitimate political arena was from behind an literal showing of force. A sentiment Michaloliakos boomed for all during the presser:
“[Greece] will not be a social jungle because of the millions of illegal immigrants they brought into our homeland, without asking us [….] The new golden dawn of Hellenism is rising. For those who betray this homeland, the time has come to fear. We are coming! [….] We are Greek patriots, we are nationalists, and we don’t let anyone question that!”
In truth, there was already plenty to fear, as Golden Dawn’s street fighters were already being credited with numerous attacks against immigrants and leftists for a period of time prior to the election. Party spokesperson and, at the time of this TV broadcast, newly elected MP Ilias Kasidiaris embodied his leader’s promise of “the time has come to fear” when he viciously attacked two female–yes, female–representatives on live television.
Kasidiaris’s actions were re-broadcast the world over, and should absolutely stand–for now as throughout history–as a bold illustration of how a fascist body reacts to any degree of challenge to its supreme authority–violent and brutal repression, whatever the costs; the more witnesses the better, in some instances.
Due to the warm reception of Golden Dawn’s ascent by far-Right racist groups here in America, it’s reasonable that the annex party members in New York City will be seeking to network and to promote their cause via already established groups that promote a vast-overlapping spectrum of white nationalist, anti-immigrant, and Islamophobic platforms–the Council of Conservative Citizens, American Third Position Party, the broader community of neo-Nazi skinheads based in that city, for example.
Such field-plowing for collaboration is on display in this press release from the racist, “Ethno-Nationalist” Renaissance Vanguard Party, titled, “Renaissance Party of North America Welcomes Golden Dawn to NAmerika [sic].”
The white nationalist, anti-immigrant website VDARE.com recently posted an article by one of its own writers, complete with a title that echoes phrasing commonly used to describe Nazi persecution of Jews and others, “Greece Rounds Up Annoying Illegal Aliens.”
Those interested in opposing fascism and racism of all varieties should take note of Golden Dawn’s arrival on these shores–their present size being of no present bearing. After all, the modus operandi of Golden Dawn and its sycophantic followers and admirers from all distances is there for all to see–Ilias Kasidiaris’s full-on assault of two female politicians during a live television debate. (Kasidiaris presently has immunity due to his status as an MP. He faces further charges of assisting a robbery and illegal weapons possession.)
If Golden Dawn is willing to enact such violence on-camera before the world, after all, imagine what it is capable of when it realizes none one is watching.