What Can Be Learned From the Golden Dawn Arrests?
Thursday October 3, 2013
Greece's far right Golden Dawn party looks like a rather nasty piece of work. Supporters have been photographed in what appears to be Nazi-esque salutes; its party logo looks suspiciously like a swastika. The party has nonetheless skyrocketed to prominence in Greece in the aftermath of EU-imposed austerity programs, which have bailed out foreign speculators in Greek debt at the expense of the Greek economy.
The party, which was formed in the 1980s, came from electoral nowhere to win seven percent of the votes in the 2012 elections. Its platform is clearly populist, anti-bailout, anti-immigration. Party workers have made inroads in Greek society distributing food and other assistance to a Greek population that has seen its formerly southern European standard of living descend to third world level existence with the smugly approving oversight of Brussels.
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