Greece is clamping down on the Golden Dawn. After years of steadily rising support, which now sees them as the third largest party in the state, the authorities have decided that the political party is indeed not a political party, but a political party masquerading as a criminal organisation. Justice, it seems, is to be administered at last.
Of course, by reacting in this way, the authorities, the government and judiciary, are running huge risks. In the wake of the recent murder of left-wing musician, Pavlos Fyssas, by a self-confessed Golden Dawn supporter, and which drew international headlines, the government was stirred into action against the party. It’s leaders, Nikolaos Michaloliakos and Christos Pappas have both been arrested; newspapers told of night raids, the police snatching them from their beds. Their supporters have reacted angrily. The political system is once again in crisis mode.
The Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party straight out of the 1930s, are the sad symptoms of not just the financial and social crises, but of the inability of politicians, both at European and national levels, to address it firmly. Golden Dawn has 18 MPs, meaning a clampdown or a proscribing of the party could de-stabilise an already fragile situation further.
Greece takes over the presidency of the European Council in January. During its six-month tenure, there will be elections to the European Parliament. It wants to clean its house before presiding over its EU colleagues. It appears to be using a cudgel instead of a feather duster.
But the panic being felt in Greece, is a panic that, if not manifested in the same way, is rising elsewhere. Across Europe, the crisis has brought about an alarming shift to the far-right, as well as it’s slightly-less extreme cousin, populism. In the former category, are the likes of Golden Dawn and, in Hungary, Jobbik. Both, with their insignias and dress code, closely resemble fascists of the past; those who stalked Italy, Germany, Span and the UK, for example, in the inter-war years during the depression. When a group of economists recently warned that we are in danger of repeating the mistakes of the Treaty of Versailles, it is perhaps these parties, more than others, that typify this; if only for their obvious visual parallel.
Elsewhere, parties such as the Danish people’s Party, The True Finns and the Swedish Democrats, not obvious throwbacks in the same way as the other two, but each with a hardcore Nazi-inspired centre, are seeking to gain ground electorally. In Austria, the far-right Freedom party extended its support in the recent elections. In France, the National Front is on the brink of respectability. Even Norway, has seen the rise of an anti-immigration party, Progress.
Only in the UK, it seems, is the trend is reversing, with its own National Front seeing support shrink dramatically. Those votes, though, are, in some ways, being picked-up by the Eurosceptic Ukip. That party, like the spanner-in-the-works jokers of Beppe Grillo’s Five Star movement in Italy are cashing-in on the anti-politics feeling. Populism is another fear facing the establishment.
In the UK, the swift decline of the National Front, so soon after it peaked electorally around 2004-2005, is due to a political response from, not just the left, but the centre-right. Anti-fascist campaigners exposed their workings and agendas, as is now been done with Ukip. Greece has taken the other route, attempting to shove the problem out of the spotlight. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to be a fascist; but this phenomenon can be overcome with ideas. But the one thing that the political establishment is short on these days is ideas. They fear discussion. Survival beyond the next election is what matters. If that can be achieved, then maybe everything else will sort itself out somehow. Now, what could possibly go wrong?
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