«The bad guys of this story are not hard to identify. The far-right Golden Dawn party (Chrysi Avgi in Greek) captures votes by using foreign migrants in the same way the Nazis used the Jews: as scapegoats for the frustrations, insecurities and hardships of today's Greek population. They blame Arabs, Asians and Africans (or 'subhumans' as they call them) for their country's dire lot. Accusing them of infecting Greeks with diseases and of turning the centre of Athens into a criminal jungle, young Golden Dawn militants hunt down foreigners in the streets, markets, parks and buses.
Golden Dawn are the bad guys, but it is not hard to grasp why they are now the third biggest party in the country, well on their way to becoming the second. At a time of awful confusion and uncertainty, they offer simple solutions to complex problems. Linked to neo-Nazi groups in Germany, they have learnt the populist lessons of the Hitler era. They magnify the danger posed by refugees and present themselves as the only true defenders of the people.
Few Greeks are unaware, for example, that there is a Golden Dawn phone number that pensioners can call to get a couple of party thugs to escort them to the bank to collect their monthly cheques, supposedly to provide protection from the dreaded foreign 'criminals'. It is unclear whether such a service actually exists, but it is clever propaganda and it reaches its target audience. Golden Dawn's most recent move was to set up an organisation called 'Doctors With Borders'. It offers, they say, a network of doctors willing to give free consultations – to natives only.»
«Return of the far right: Greece's financial crisis has led to a rise in violent attacks on refugees»
