If you look for the starting point of the reaction that a few years ago led to the removal of the history textbook for the 6th grade, you can find it in Kilkis. In May 2006, Dimitris Natsios, a teacher in the city’s 4th elementary school and a holder of a theology degree, after publishing his critical remarks in the local newspaper Gnomi, calling the authors “agents of the New Order”, promoted his text on the Counterbalance website.

According to its creator, then an immigrant to England, the website sought to act as a think tank for discussions about “national identity”. This was followed by the collection of some 9,000 signatures against the new book and an escalation of patriotic backlash from ecclesiastical and political figures of the day to withdraw it.

This was the first time Mr. Natsios became more widely known in the country, also giving a short interview to the SKAI Torch program investigation in 2007. More than a decade later, the teacher from Kilkis is back in the news as the head of the “Niki” movement, which almost made it to parliament with 2.92% and 172,201 votes in recent elections.

“Consider yourself blessed that you are Orthodox Christians, because there is no more honorable thing in the world than Orthodoxy,” he said in a mid-May campaign speech in Thessaloniki. Next to him on the stage was a poster with a statue of Constantine Palaiologos, and his audience waved Greek and Byzantine flags. As in any such meeting, everything began and ended with a prayer.

What has been happening all these years and how did an ethno-religious political entity with a xenophobic and homophobic discourse, which until recently remained unnoticed by the electoral radar, managed to have such an electoral footprint? “K” is trying to unravel the thread.

For a number of years, Mr. Natsios, in addition to the local newspapers of Kilkis, also wrote articles for the publication of the monastery of Agios Nikodimos in Agioreitis in Pentalofos, Kilkis. For a decade, he hosted the program “Grammat Spudagmat” on the regional church television 4E.

In 2012, the religious association “Enomeni Romiosina” published a brochure “Books of a new class”. “Romeosini” appears as one of the supporters of the “Let Me Live” campaign, in which anti-abortion posters were placed in the Athens subway. In addition, today Niki does not hide his identical views, writing in his statement that “Greece in 1986 began to legalize abortion, seduced by the ideological hegemony of artificial rights.”

According to the teacher, Mr. Natsios’ colleague from Kilkis, his classroom was decorated with images of the 21st year fighters, and when the 4th grade joined the Digital School and Flexible Zone program, he seemed unwilling to take advantage of the new technology tools. In his 2010 text in Resalto magazine, he wrote that the classroom is becoming an Internet cafe and that the school “should not innovate, but support.”

It seems like an oxymoron, but technology seems to be one of the main tools for spreading the Nike movement’s messages today. On their website, next to each local organization, there is a QR code with a link to the corresponding Viber group. In some of these groups, invitations to participate in mobilizations against compulsory vaccination are posted at unexpected election times. One of them, 08/25/2021, in the Pieria group, invites those who wish to book seats on buses to Thessaloniki.

Management of “Omichmi”

The anti-vaccination movement has been and remains one of the reservoirs for attracting voters as well as leaders. Among other things, one of the members of the Omihmiya, as they call their leadership team, is a doctor with many children who was suspended from work for refusing to be vaccinated. “Our conscience reacted because some wanted to trample on the authority God had given us,” he said in a speech in June 2022.

Monk St. Orosa points to the ideological closeness of the movement to the pro-Russian monasteries, emphasizing that the management of the memory of St. Paisia.

Websites close to the nationalist space show that Mr. Natsios signed in 2014 the founding declaration of the Radical National Anxiety (ROOTS), a political entity that ultimately did not contest elections. Nicky was created in 2019, and it seems that the main reason for its creation was opposition to the Prespa Agreement.

A candidate for Nika in Central Macedonia, a former police officer and a theologian, told K that he was invited to vote two months ago and that Mr. Natsios was chosen as leader because he is the most recognizable of his speeches. to metropolitans and religious associations about textbooks. He adds that most of his co-candidates “have many children, go to church, take communion, or have degrees in theology.” If you look at the short biographies they cite, you can see that some of them make a name for themselves beyond their professions and related qualities: singers, graduates of the seminary of catechists, authors of Orthodox Christian books.

The program provisions that they posted on their website say, among other things, that informing teenagers on the issues of conception, contraception and “abstinence” should be carried out with the cooperation of the state and the church. There is even talk of establishing compulsory schools for parents. “We don’t agree with homosexuality,” says the “K” candidate. “We reject not man, but sin. Our arms are open to anyone who “repents”.

At the same time, they note in their positions that foreigners residing in Greece will not receive citizenship, but will be subject to “shareholder status”. Based on this distinction, they say their health and work status must be checked every month or they will be deported.

Mr. Natsios reportedly told his interlocutors in Kilkis that he was supported by monks from Mount Athos. “K” tried to contact him for clarification, but he said that according to the collective decision of the movement, interviews would not be given for several days.

Niki recorded the highest percentage in Northern Greece. In Pieria he received 7.46%, in Pella 6.13% and in Kilkis 5.27%. However, a telling example of the party’s cadre and how its appeal has been shaped can be found even further away, in Achaia. One of the priests who openly advocates for Victory lives in Patras and during the pandemic worked normally in the temple, despite the relevant prohibitions. His messages are also played today in Viber groups supported by local movement groups throughout Greece. At the end of April, the local executive committee N.D. got into a confrontation with the priest of Patra, stating that it works in a dark way, as he indoctrinated his flock, saying “it’s a blessing from God that they vote for ‘Niki'”.

The journalist of the Peloponnis newspaper Giorgos Anastasopoulos notes that half of Nika’s candidates in Achaia are associated with the religious associations “Christian shelter”, “Christian home” and “Rehabilitation school of Patras”, and relatives of priests participated in the first class in the voting. Similar associations throughout Greece publish their own publications, run bookstores or children’s camps, they have a certain, solid audience to which they appeal.

“Voice Hunt Cynicism”

Recently, in his statement on the election, Metropolitan Antim of Alexandroupoli criticized “the provocative interference of monastic and church organizations in support of the parties.” As he noted, “electoral cynicism and the instrumentalization of religious feelings as a means to achieve other people’s goals pose a huge threat to the political system and society.”

The Athos monk, who spoke to K on condition of anonymity, points to the ideological closeness of the movement to the so-called “philotheistic” monasteries on Athos, which also have pro-Russian overtones. He adds that another factor that may explain Nika’s electoral footprint is the management of Saint Paisios’ memory. His niece joined the party ballots, as well as the author of related books, who in recent years has given speeches as his “spiritual child”.

“Agios Paisios is presiding over us,” Mr. Natsios said in his campaign speech in Thessaloniki. “We are told that the Church supports us, that monasteries support us, that Orthodox Christians support us. Our honor and our pride. We are not supported by Masonic lodges or Bilderberg clubs.”