Tamerlane
19th October 2012, 14:19
Greece's far-right party, Golden Dawn, won 18 parliamentary seats in the June election with a campaign openly hostile to illegal immigrants and there are now allegations that some Greek police are supporting the party.
"There is already civil war," says Ilias Panagiotaros. If so, the shop he owns is set to do a roaring trade.
It sells camouflage gear, police riot gloves, face masks and T-shirts extolling football hooliganism.
On the walls are posters celebrating the last civil war in Greece, which ended in 1949.
"Greek society is ready - even though no-one likes this - to have a fight: a new type of civil war," he says.
"On the one side there will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our country to be as it used to be, and on the other side illegal immigrants, anarchists and all those who have destroyed Athens several times," he adds.
You hear comments like this a lot in Greece now but Ilias Panagiotaros is not some figure on the fringes: he is a member of the Greek parliament, one of 18 MPs elected for the far-right Golden Dawn in June's general election.
Here is the full article on the BBC website. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19976841)
Watching what is happening in Greece makes me feel like I'm staring at a car-wreck happening in slow motion. It's terrible, but you can't look away and ignore it. Nor should you.
This is something that especially worries me: '"Greek society is ready - even though no-one likes this - to have a fight: a new type of civil war," he says.'
Strikes and protests - and the clashes between the protesters and police during those events - were one thing, but I think that a shift of some sort has happened. The motorbike patrol by leftists recently, the police forces pretty blatantly teaming up with GD, the attack on the Chyterio theatre. The situation has stepped up. As the article says, Golden Dawn's 8 offices around the country have become 60 since the election!.
Last month, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, warned Europe that his country was on the edge of a Weimar Germany-style social collapse.
What I have seen on the streets of Athens convinces me this is not rhetoric. The situation is changing rapidly.
There is a violent far-right party, its MPs committing and inciting violence with impunity; a police force that cannot or will not prevent Golden Dawn from projecting uniformed force on the streets. And a middle class that feels increasingly powerless to turn the situation round.
Most dangerous, I think is that the idea has been sown and seems to be spreading. The idea that only a proper fight will resolve things now. I mean, that's basically one of GD's main angles, isn't it?
Another thought. We'd like to think that something like this - a civil war - couldn't happen in modern Europe, but the clusterfuck that was Yugoslavia in the 90's shows us that it definitely is possible. The same situation shows us that Europe might well not do anything at all.
How can those who oppose the Golden Dawn - both locals and those outside of Greece - support that struggle?
"There is already civil war," says Ilias Panagiotaros. If so, the shop he owns is set to do a roaring trade.
It sells camouflage gear, police riot gloves, face masks and T-shirts extolling football hooliganism.
On the walls are posters celebrating the last civil war in Greece, which ended in 1949.
"Greek society is ready - even though no-one likes this - to have a fight: a new type of civil war," he says.
"On the one side there will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our country to be as it used to be, and on the other side illegal immigrants, anarchists and all those who have destroyed Athens several times," he adds.
You hear comments like this a lot in Greece now but Ilias Panagiotaros is not some figure on the fringes: he is a member of the Greek parliament, one of 18 MPs elected for the far-right Golden Dawn in June's general election.
Here is the full article on the BBC website. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19976841)
Watching what is happening in Greece makes me feel like I'm staring at a car-wreck happening in slow motion. It's terrible, but you can't look away and ignore it. Nor should you.
This is something that especially worries me: '"Greek society is ready - even though no-one likes this - to have a fight: a new type of civil war," he says.'
Strikes and protests - and the clashes between the protesters and police during those events - were one thing, but I think that a shift of some sort has happened. The motorbike patrol by leftists recently, the police forces pretty blatantly teaming up with GD, the attack on the Chyterio theatre. The situation has stepped up. As the article says, Golden Dawn's 8 offices around the country have become 60 since the election!.
Last month, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, warned Europe that his country was on the edge of a Weimar Germany-style social collapse.
What I have seen on the streets of Athens convinces me this is not rhetoric. The situation is changing rapidly.
There is a violent far-right party, its MPs committing and inciting violence with impunity; a police force that cannot or will not prevent Golden Dawn from projecting uniformed force on the streets. And a middle class that feels increasingly powerless to turn the situation round.
Most dangerous, I think is that the idea has been sown and seems to be spreading. The idea that only a proper fight will resolve things now. I mean, that's basically one of GD's main angles, isn't it?
Another thought. We'd like to think that something like this - a civil war - couldn't happen in modern Europe, but the clusterfuck that was Yugoslavia in the 90's shows us that it definitely is possible. The same situation shows us that Europe might well not do anything at all.
How can those who oppose the Golden Dawn - both locals and those outside of Greece - support that struggle?