An attack that brings bad months to the assault battalions golden dawn before her first conviction as a criminal organization, she recalled invasion of about 15 people Wednesday evening at an exhibition of works by Sergei Andreevsky, an artist from North Macedonia.

A few minutes before 8:00 pm, people with covered faces and Golden Dawn badges invaded the territory where the exhibition was held, in Kalamaria, in the east Thessaloniki and, seizing the artist, who was there with his wife, tied up the entrance with a red ribbon, “sealing” him. In fact, they posted a video of their invasion on their website.

“It is good not to attach more importance to people who act in this way. The exhibition ended the way it did. But many have seen it. Let’s focus on the positive side of things, and not on how it ended. Security will look into what happened.” This was reported to “K” by the mayor of Kalamaria Yannis Dardamanelis.trying not to follow the incident.

Election dates

Far-right stocks are now rising as polls show there is demand for far-right political offerings. Aristides Hatzis, Professor of Philosophy of Law and Theory of Institutions, University of Kapodistrias, commenting on the timing of the raid. “Now they feel more confident because they think that somehow they will be represented in the Greek Parliament.”

As soon as she saw the invasion video, Joanna Meitani, coordinator of the Point for the study and countering the far right, directly recalled the attack in Chitirioni in 2012. “I think it happened now because before the elections they see a stream of acceptance, which is concentrated mainly in the person of Kasidiaris. The far right is gaining popularity in the polls and they want to ‘ride the wave’ to get noticed,” he stresses.

Feeling of tolerance

What they both notice is the sense of tolerance that such moves allow.

Ms. Meitani cites attacks since the first Golden Dawn judgment, such as the EPAL incidents in Thessaloniki, the bombing of an unofficial Muslim prayer house in Patisia, and the beating of immigrants. “They are starting to reappear, but not in the numbers they existed before the persecution of the Golden Dawn. But from a perspective, it’s something that should have been taken a lot more seriously once it started happening again.” She also emphasizes that a climate of tolerance was also cultivated by the inaction of the state, which, after the decision to condemn the organization 2.5 years ago, should immediately take legal action to decide what would happen if its members were reinstated as candidates.

Macedonian – preferred field

According to Aristidis Hatzis, the choice of the Macedonian language as the subject that accompanied the reappearance of such behavior is not at all accidental.

“The Macedonian language is a privileged field for them. When you collaborate with the far right in any way, as was done in part in the squares in 2011 and later in Macedonia, you pay for it, you legitimize them,” he says, adding that many of our fellow citizens will see the video and say : “Well done kids, why is Skopianos having an exhibition here too?”, applauding their behavior as bold or interventionist. “The far right exists because many ideas of nationalism and populism dominate Greek society.”

local meetings

Responsibility for the invasion was claimed by the Youth Front, which, as stated in its name, is “a group of combat action cells throughout Greece, consisting of students, students and working Greek nationalists, under the auspices of the Golden Dawn Movement.” “.

“What is happening is mostly local gatherings. There is no central organization that existed, or subservience to a leader and a central line,” Ms. Meitani notes, emphasizing that after the first court verdict, the Golden Dawn formation weakened and suffered an irreversible blow, losing many members. However, as he warns, what is worrying is that the potential is there. “It’s not hard to regroup behind the face.”

It is noted that by order of the head of the Prosecutor’s Office of First Instance of Thessaloniki, Dimitris Smyrnis, an urgent preliminary investigation was appointed in order to identify the perpetrators and bring them to the established criminal responsibility. Crimes related to illegal racially motivated violence, complicity and incitement to commit crimes, violence or hostility are investigated.