Far right on rise in Greece: giving food parcels and clothing

vivatifosi

Interesting article from Reuters:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/29/uk-greece-election-venizelos-idUKBRE83S03120120429

In an interview, the former finance minister warned against the rise of the ultra-nationalist party Golden Dawn, which could win around 5 percent of the vote, comfortably above the 3 percent threshold for entering parliament...

...Golden Dawn, which vows to expel both legal and illegal immigrants and meets under a flag of an ancient Greek symbol similar to the swastika, has won over many of Greece's poor by giving away clothes and food parcels.

It says it is simply a nationalist party and has attracted a large protest vote by attacking the bailout and what it calls German domination of Europe.

So concerned are the co-ruling parties about the rise of the far-right that the government has in recent weeks rounded up thousands of illegal immigrants in central Athens and begun to build detention camps to house them in.

Sad to say I'm not surprised and expect to see more of this. I wanted to flag this story to follow on from something that A Badger said about this type of government being not far back in the collective memories of many countries. Why they'd want to go back to it though is beyond me. Conventional politics appears to be widely seen as failing and people are feeling disenfranchised, which is very dangerous.

SailorSam

Should we be seeing a warning from history here When the world was in depression between the two world wars people look for someone to blame. In Germany it resulted in the rise of the Nazi party who told people it was the Jews who had caused all the problems, they were seen as doing well and rich while much of the rest of the population suffered. Now we have the same thing happening again in Greece.
Where next ? France looks likely to have a right wing president soon, will it come to the Uk.

vivatifosi

I agree Sam. I think there's the beginnings of a very dangerous pattern emerging. I don't think the Far Right has the power to take a country yet, but it is worrying.

gagahouse

vivatifosi wrote: »

Interesting article from Reuters:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/04/29/uk-greece-election-venizelos-idUKBRE83S03120120429

In an interview, the former finance minister warned against the rise of the ultra-nationalist party Golden Dawn, which could win around 5 percent of the vote, comfortably above the 3 percent threshold for entering parliament...

...Golden Dawn, which vows to expel both legal and illegal immigrants and meets under a flag of an ancient Greek symbol similar to the swastika, has won over many of Greece's poor by giving away clothes and food parcels.

It says it is simply a nationalist party and has attracted a large protest vote by attacking the bailout and what it calls German domination of Europe.

So concerned are the co-ruling parties about the rise of the far-right that the government has in recent weeks rounded up thousands of illegal immigrants in central Athens and begun to build detention camps to house them in.

Sad to say I'm not surprised and expect to see more of this. I wanted to flag this story to follow on from something that A Badger said about this type of government being not far back in the collective memories of many countries. Why they'd want to go back to it though is beyond me. Conventional politics appears to be widely seen as failing and people are feeling disenfranchised, which is very dangerous.

When the people feel abandoned and betrayed by the centre they will turn to the fringes. Golden Dawn is the uglier side of this fringe but I wouldn't worry about them politically. The extreme left is more likely to play a part in a coalition govt as neither Pasok or ND have enough to form a govt unless they join together which is difficult to envisage but not impossible.

SailorSam Should we be seeing a warning from history here When the world was in depression between the two world wars people look for someone to blame. In Germany it resulted in the rise of the Nazi party who told people it was the Jews who had caused all the problems, they were seen as doing well and rich while much of the rest of the population suffered. Now we have the same thing happening again in Greece.
Where next ? France looks likely to have a right wing president soon, will it come to the Uk.

Hollande is very much left wing, Sarkozy will lose.

SailorSam

gagahouse wrote: »

Sarkozy will lose.

More bad news for the outgoing President has come out today with news that he received a donation from Colonel Gadaffi, that's not going to help his ratings.
Bonjour Planet Earth: Sarkozy rocked by new evidence that he received £42m gift from Gaddafi that helped bring him to power...

kabayiri

vivatifosi wrote: »

I agree Sam. I think there's the beginnings of a very dangerous pattern emerging. I don't think the Far Right has the power to take a country yet, but it is worrying.

If history shows anything, it's not the revolutionist Lenin to be fearful of, but the quieter Stalin figure in the wings, watching everything unfold.

Your OP illustrates the reactive nature of politics. The rise in Greek extremism is prompting the Greeks to round up illegals. Right wing support is therefore 'already' having an effect.

michaels

In a way it is suprising that it is only 5% given the disruption going on in Greek society and the democracy defficeit resulting from the EU.

Still I suspect that currently the bigger risk is that the Generals step in to resolve a 'national breakdown'

pqrdef

Time for a conspiracy theory. For many on the American right, and quite a few Tories in England, Europe's bleeding-heart socialism is public enemy number 1. So everything's working out nicely.

Wookster

It is very clear that Western Europe has a crisis of leadership. In the absence of leaders, making their case, providing real solutions (rather than simple austerity or the foolish notion that increasing government spending a bit will lead to growth) parties at the fringes will gain support.

Itismehonest

Unfortunately, these sort of times always bring the far right & far left to the fore.
As Santayana said "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".
When you take this country where in 2010 "A survey of first-year history undergraduates revealed that twice as many students thought Nelson was in charge at the Battle of Waterloo rather than Wellington & ninety per cent could not name a single British Prime Minister of the 19th century." how can we ever believe future generations will do better?
( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/schools-minister-children-are-deprived-of-knowledge-2016383.html )

kabayiri

Wookster wrote: »

It is very clear that Western Europe has a crisis of leadership. In the absence of leaders, making their case, providing real solutions (rather than simple austerity or the foolish notion that increasing government spending a bit will lead to growth) parties at the fringes will gain support.

The Credit Boom pre-crunch; the creation of the Eurozone; the growth of the 'state' in various countries (including our own - see numbers of public servants).

Perhaps these were all a convenient mask for the lack of creditable sustainable long term growth policies ?

And now the chickens have come home to roost..