The oligiosity of the political system and Justice to create immunity to violence disguised as a political proposal, or resentment and hatred that has not ceased to boil under the surface of “normality”? What is the reason why the far right – and especially the extreme right, prone to violence and crime, as the notorious “Cassidiari party” puts it – remain resistant to the treatment and vaccines of the Republic? “Kathimerini” talked to figures from the political world, as well as to prominent researchers and scientists. The discussions revealed three main reasons for the persistence of the Nazi offshoot of the Greek far right.

First, the political system and the judiciary underestimated this phenomenon. The government, opposition parties and the judiciary have not taken any decisive action to ban the National Party – Hellenes, founded in 2020 by imprisoned former Golden Dawn member Ilias Kasidiaris, who was imprisoned in Domokos prisons. Some law professors share the view that the judiciary should be activated immediately and the party banned. No special legislation was required. Can the judge simply refer to Article 29 § 1 of the Constitution, which emphasizes that Greek citizens are allowed to form and participate in political parties, provided that “their organization and activities must serve the free functioning of democratic politics.”

However, other jurists have reservations that this article never applied in the post-colonial period due to the turbulent pre-dictatorial political history when the KKE was banned. However, the criticism of the government was that it did not dare to take a radical decision in time, and today it is forced to react sharply, because the possible entry of the seventh party into parliament will not only be tantamount to laundering crimes and “polluting” the Parliament with a Nazi mentality, but will raise the level of independence is higher than 38%.

Another criticism of the government, the opposition, and the judiciary is that the “Party of Cassidiaris” has been allowed to operate from prison through teleconferencing and other initiatives, opportunities that no convict legally has. So, since the law was not implemented, this peculiar party gradually gained considerable popularity. In other words, the reason this party “bloated” is because the political system and the judiciary allowed the “snake egg” to hatch, perhaps thinking that the golden egg phenomenon would disappear with the end of the financial crisis.

In 2013, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, along with then Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos, led the formation and support of political and institutional initiatives against the Golden Dawn. In the autumn of the same year, the activities of the party-criminal organization crossed all boundaries, with attacks on immigrants and intimidation operations that ended in the assassination of Pavlos Fissas. Whatever thoughts thought that the Golden Dawn could be “tamed” disappeared in those days, and the parties of the democratic arc showed fist and determination.

Ten years later, despite the convictions and years of imprisonment of the leader of the organization, Nikos Michaloliakos and many of its members, there are citizens who say in opinion polls that they will vote for the party-revolution of the criminal organization. .

“Blind reaction to the system”

Antonis Samaras in his discussions, he does not dismiss the explanation that economic conditions may be the reason for some of the few extreme party supporters, nor discount the fact that the combination of far right and violence is politically expressed in many countries. However, he believes that “the challenge to the entire political system, which can be expressed by a small percentage of the extreme party, is rooted not so much in economic conditions or in the possible disagreement of some part of public opinion about the management of national issues. It’s more of a backlash against the supposed establishment. That is, even measures against the coronovirus could be taken in the minds of some, especially some of the youth, as a systemic initiative to take away freedoms.”

“Violence comes from everywhere”

“The attraction of the Kasidiari party is helped by an element of courageous violence”, Evangelos Venizelos says. “Society produces a lot of violence, political dialogue is often conducted in terms of violence. Violence arises from the political system outside the violence that the society produces ex officio, as a result of which even the party that even symbolizes violence, that hides and accepts the use of violence, finds a response in the field of violence.

After all, violence is everywhere, even in the popular drama, in the television series of our time, where almost all the dialogues express indignation and seething of the soul to such an extent that you begin to suspect that this is the condition, the “recipe” for their attractiveness. . What makes Greek society “boil in its juice”? “Society has suffered a refutation of post-colonialism. For the first 35 years there was a continuous rise, but then a crisis came.

Anthony Samaras. The challenge to the entire political system is rooted not so much in economic conditions. Even the coronavirus measures could be perceived by some as a systemic initiative to take away freedoms. Prokopis Pavlopoulos The electorate itself must marginalize any vestiges of Nazism. This is a national debt.

Dora Bakoyannis, ND candidate. in Chania, believes that the republic has no reason to be afraid, because it has every opportunity to fight its skeptics and underminers. A politician can convince that part of public opinion that is expressed nihilistically, thereby devaluing extreme politicians. “There is no doubt that the phenomenon of the extreme parties is pan-European, because the phenomenon of citizens who say “fire on earth” is pan-European, like Greek. I also met a man the other day in Chania who said to me: “I don’t care, Dora, if everything burns down.” And I told him: “Really? And what will you do next?” He replied that he would do his job. Well, you won’t do your job, I told him, because if everything burns down, then your work will burn down. That is why you must calmly and seriously decide what is right. Some voters may say extreme things, but that’s why politicians are here to talk to them and convince them.”

“Consequence of Inequality”

He also focuses on the global nature of the “symptom” of the emergence of far-right parties and movements. former minister of SYRIZA and candidate for Athens 1 Nikos Filis. “Trump, Bolsonaro, Meloni have managed to inject violent far-right expressions even within the government. This phenomenon is associated with an explosion of inequality, to which some easily respond that foreigners are to blame. Thus, it is a declaration of war by the poor against the poorest. The development matrix of the ultra-right was and is a refugee and refugee phobia. From now on, the crisis caused by the EU’s neo-liberal policies causes impoverishment, and this is where the extreme right comes in and fishes. The causes of the gold rush have not been defeated, but against this policy, the left, both on the sidewalks and in parliament, is firmly at the forefront.

“Institutional and Popular Response”

In addition to the causes, which can be many, everyone agrees that in the treatment of the phenomenon. Former President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos believes that democracy itself and its institutions together must be the answer to extremes. This highlights the dual dimension of the required response, which must be both popular and institutional. “Based on the tragedies accumulated in our country by the dictatorships of the past – and especially the most recent one in the period from 1967 to 1974 – I am sure that in addition to the relevant institutions and, above all, the judicial system, the electorate itself is marginalized, in the end. , all kinds of formations and remnants of Nazism and fascism. It’s literally a national duty.”

What the study shows

If we consider the phenomenon from a scientific point of view, we can conclude that Greek public opinion is like a volcano that has accumulated a sufficient amount of “anti-system magma”. DiaNEOSis Content Manager Thodoris Georgakopoulos identifies two critical questions in related research. First, if you think that most politicians don’t care what people like him think. Secondly, if he believes that ordinary people can solve problems better than politicians. According to the American research center Pew Research Center, a positive answer to both questions allows us to assess the degree of anti-systemic perception. “In Greece, the percentage of those who answered yes to both questions is 43%.” The Spaniards, Italians and French are approaching us with percentages also above 40%. The Germans are switching to 25-26%, and the Swedes to 12%. So when nearly half of Greeks and half of Europeans think they can govern better than politicians, it’s only natural that they find votes for strange, unexpected, extremist and even dangerous people. And for “systemic” leaders to claim them because of their combinations… It’s just that some people, like Casidiaris, become a problem because they go beyond all limits, even the limits, imposed by tolerant social coexistence.

Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology of Communication at AUTI Vasilis Vamvakas emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between social networks and movements (and parties) with extreme positions. “Social media and especially Twitter can become engines of intolerance. They become a platform for the development of anti-systemism, since they form a chaotic field that promotes polarization and conflict, rather than consensus and understanding. Whereas we used to say that the media creates consensus, now we can say that social networks produce and multiply polarization, fueling extreme attitudes and behaviour. It has to do with the nature of these media as well as their manipulation.” Conspiracy theories and delusions are espoused in this area, with the result that the Kasidiaris party and other parties with extremist statements remain attractive. This is also confirmed by the fact that a part of the public mind devotes itself to these media because it considers, for example, Twitter to be “out of control of the establishment” (which is far from the truth, since social networks are manipulated by creating fake accounts – bots). However, the strength of social media in the Greek political scene was from 2010 to 2015, and the density of tension has eased since then, Mr Vamvakas says. As for the Kasidiari party, its attractiveness is not a mystery. “In that part of public opinion where the mood for the destruction of the political system prevails, criminal activity can be perceived as a sign of anti-systemism. And indeed, all the running of this party by the state these days can, to some extent, increase its support. But I do not think that a strong anti-systemic wave will be expressed in the elections as a whole. The current situation, even after Tempe, is not conducive to anti-systemism, as it was ten years ago.”