Amid Crisis, Right-Wing Extremism on Rise in Greece

The fallout from Greece’s economic crisis has created a shift in the country’s political landscape allowing the far right to regain some power after years of political stasis.
Amid Crisis, Right-Wing Extremism on Rise in Greece
Greek right wing LAOS party leader arrives for a meeting of political party leaders at the presidential mansion in Athens, on Nov. 10. (Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images)
12/5/2011
Updated:
12/6/2011
<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/LAOS-132185132.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-153226"><img class="size-large wp-image-153226" title="Greek right wing LAOS party leader gestu" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/LAOS-132185132-676x450.jpg" alt="" width="319" height="212"/></a>

The fallout from Greece’s economic crisis has created a shift in the country’s political landscape allowing the far right to regain some power after years of political stasis. This shift has some observers concerned that Greece’s fascist past might be resurfacing.

For seven years between 1967 and 1974, Greece was ruled by a fascist military regime. Since then, the country had not had any far-right representation in government—that is, until this month when the national unity government was formed.

After Prime Minister George Papandreou was forced to resign over his poor handling of the economic crisis, Greece’s parties squabbled for several days before producing a new ruling coalition, the national unity government under career economist Lucas Papademos.

Apart from bringing together Greece’s two traditional major parties—center-left PASOK and center-right New Democracy—the coalition included the extreme right-wing Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) party. 

LAOS, which won 5.63 percent of the popular vote and 15 seats in the last parliamentary election, was given one ministerial post and two deputy minister positions. Two left-wing parties of similar size rejected the offer to join the coalition, calling for fresh elections instead.

Anti-Semitic Connections

LAOS was formed in 2000, after founder and party leader Georgios Karatzaferis was expelled from New Democracy over disagreements with party leadership and his penchant for making inflammatory remarks. 

The LOAS party describes itself in its manifesto as democratic, and not “dogmatically nationalistic,” “rightist extremist,” or “racist,” but rather “hellenocentric,” meaning putting focus on Greece. 

But concern over the party has been rife in the blogosphere and among some political commentators. Biographical information about the new LAOS ministers, as well as the party itself, have been circulating on the Internet. Greek freelance journalist Kostas Kallergis, who previously worked at one of Greece’s biggest private TV stations, has compiled a collection on his blog.

The new Infrastructure and Transport Minister Makis Voridis, reports Kallergis, was previously general secretary of the youth league of far-right political party EPEN, which was formed by the jailed former military junta leader Georgios Papadopoulos. 

Pictures of a young Voridis from the mid-80s, roaming the campus of Athens University with some kind of homemade axe, together with other armed young men, was posted online by the Eleftherotypia newspaper back in 2002 and is now circulating. Voridis was expelled by the Law School Student Union and later sued by the National Union of Students for participating in fascist attacks against other students.

Voridis then went on to form the Hellenic Front Party, which in the 2004 general elections collaborated with the Proti Grammi Party, headed by notorious anti-Semite Kostas Plevris. Plevris wrote a book published in 2006 called “Jews: The Whole Truth,” which praises Adolf Hitler and calls for the extermination of Jews. Plevris’s son Thanos is now a LAOS member of Parliament as well.

The new Deputy Minister of Development Adonis Georgiades is apparently a great fan of Kostas Plevris’s book, since he repeatedly advertised it on his TV show on the TeleAsty channel, managed by the LAOS party.

According to Athens News, LAOS party leader Georgios Karatzaferis has made anti-Semitic comments and talked about the “myth” of the Holocaust. Karatzaferis now denies such views and called the Holocaust “a fact of history” and “the greatest crime in history” in a TV interview on Nov. 14. 

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece is not entirely convinced of his about-face, however. Without naming names, they published an announcement three days after the interview saying that LAOS has “members … which have expressed in the past propaganda against the Jews” and that the board is monitoring the situation. 

Israeli newspapers and the American Anti-Defamation League have reacted more strongly, the latter calling the inclusion of LAOS in the government “deeply troubling” and urged new PM Papademos to “firmly and unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism.” 

George Margaritis, professor of contemporary history at the University of Thessaloniki, the largest university in Greece, told The Epoch Times that he sees a bigger, more ominous picture in the inclusion of LAOS in the government. 

“The return in the Greek government of political forces that claim to be heirs of the seven-year military dictatorship is, of course, a very important development. In reality we can speak about the end of a whole political period,” he said. 

According to Margaritis, there had previously existed a kind of “gentlemen’s agreement” between the main political forces in Greece to keep parties like LAOS out of power. 

Margaritis argues that the system of alternating power between conservatives and socialists in Greece that began with the fall of the junta in 1974 has now effectively ended, and that the future is unclear. “The crisis seems to destroy all democratic traditions of the past,” he said. 

Greece is currently suffering such severe austerity measures, that Margaritis describes it as social and economic “violence” against the Greek people. He says the mood in the country today, is reminiscent of the time under the fascist junta.

“[It] is not just about people claiming the ‘values’ of the military Junta. The adoption of violent policies that only a junta—impassive of social suffering and distress—could adopt, completes the whole image. Under those auspices it is quite natural that the extreme right was called to take government responsibilities.”

Although the current government is a temporary one, LAOS will make efficient use of its time in office to build networks and strength, says Margaritis. He predicts, “They are there to stay.”

Meanwhile, something that Margaritis views as a more real and immediate threat to people’s safety than anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, has been unfolding. Immigrants in Athens have in recent years borne the brunt of some Greeks’ frustration with the ongoing economic crisis.

According to a report from British-based Institute of Race Relations (IRR), Nikos Michaloliakos (who was the general secretary of the EPEN youth league before Makis Voridis) and his extreme right-wing Hrisi Avgi Party have capitalized on xenophobic currents evoked by the crisis and made it into the municipal Athens Central Council in 2010. 

Michaloliakos appeared in City Hall in January this year with eight “apparently armed” bodyguards, giving a Nazi salute. The party has campaigned against plans to build a mosque in Athens and members threw eggs at Muslims during a religious holiday celebration in November 2010, reports IRR.

In May this year, violence erupted in the Greek capital after 44-year-old Manolis Kantaris was killed in what appeared to be a street robbery. Immigrants were blamed, although no evidence has emerged that supports this theory. Black-clad fascist youth roamed neighborhoods in Athens, attacking more than 100 Asian and African immigrants and looting dozens of immigrant-owned shops, according to community leaders.