No Quick Fix for Extremism in Greece

ATHENS - A momentous political development has shaken Greece in the past month: the prosecution of MPs from the extreme right party, Golden Dawn. Six of its MPs were arrested; three, including party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, have so far been detained on serious criminal charges. The sight of handcuffed parliamentary representatives, even from a political party espousing abominable ideas such as those of Golden Dawn, is striking and possibly unprecedented in a European democracy. The catalyst was the murder, in September, in a traditional working-class district of Greater Athens, of Pavlos Fyssas, a young musician. Fyssas, also known as Killah P, was a symbol of the left and, in the view of Golden Dawn, a harbinger of multiculturalism. The person accused of his murder, Yorgos Rupakias, was an active member of the local Golden Dawn branch in the broader area, with close ties to the party?s upper echelons.

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