The Golden Dawn are a Greek neo-Nazi political party who until recently were largely unheard of in Europe more widely, but who now have 21 seats in the Greek parliament following last week’s election. Their leader, Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, claims his top priority is to rid the country of immigrants. Although they deny being a neo-Nazi group, it doesn’t take a genius to see what may have inspired their emblem. They wear black shirts, wave flags and even salute. They are the most brazenly fascist of all the rising far-right movements across Europe, but should they be seen as a manifestation of Greece’s unique and terrible economic circumstances or as part of a wider rise of the far-right?
Their rise should not come as a surprise. Greece is suffering more than any other European country. Greece has been vilified as lazy, greedy and stupid not only by the media of major European countries but by the governments as well. As we all know, in the UK parliament ‘ending up like Greece’ is a byword for failure. The failure of the European Union to accommodate for all member states and diverse economies has led to Greece’s humiliation and degradation; it is understandable that reactionary nationalism has taken hold of some people. One can’t help but notice the similarities between the ‘deal’ forced upon Greece and the Treaty of Versailles, they both completely overlooked how ordinary people (who were not to blame for the mistakes of politicians and financiers) would be effected.
However it would be lazy and dangerous to simply brush off the rise of Golden Dawn as a result of poverty, unemployment and depression, as solely a reaction to EU austerity measures. A willingness to embrace the far-right has swept Europe in the last decade. The Front Nationale in France is an obvious example, who for the first time ever became a major political force in the election last week. Although Marine Le Pen’s party is a far more family-friendly version of her father’s neo-fascist Front Nationale, their rise signifies a willingness to embrace a party which has its roots in fascism. Golden Dawn are far more extreme than Marine Le Pen, but their shared values are ones previously thought to be confined to the 20th century.
The surge of the far-right hasn’t been restricted to countries in dire economic situations; even Europe’s most successful economy has seen a resurgence of ultra-nationalism. In Germany, a group called The Immortals march the streets at night. They campaign on a platform of anti-capitalism, they are anti-democratic, and most harrowingly they warn of a future Germany in which the German people will be extinct. They wear black cloaks, masks, and carry fire. Last year it was reported that a village in Germany had been entirely overrun by neo-Nazi’s and has stylised itself as such. Through intimidating other villagers and welcoming other Nazi’s, Jamel is now a village adorned with neo-Nazi symbolism where children give the Hitler salute in the street. Little has been done about this. The NDP, the German far-right party often accused of neo-Nazism, has seen increasing success in some local elections.
Perhaps it is now time to take a look at our own ‘immortals.’ Many people have characterised the rise of the English Defence League as a part of football culture, and many openly support their stated causes. Importantly the EDL are not anti-democratic or anti-capitalist, they do not use imagery from past fascist groups. They are thus deemed tolerable to middle England. However their differences to European groups are unsurprising, British nationalism is rooted in the WW2 mind-set which depicts Britain as the anti-Nazi hero. The fact that they don’t use traditional Nazi symbols doesn’t exonerate the fact that their preaches echo those of Golden Dawn and the Immortals. They are aggressively, intensely and violently islamophobic and anti-immigrant. Their marches characterised by racist chanting, their members violently intimidate people who don’t fit their specifications.
Here in Britain we need to take the rise of the far-right every bit as seriously as they should in Germany or Greece, in Austria or Italy. Although it was an unsuccessful attempt that was mocked by the media, the EDL tried to form a pan-European far-right coalition recently in Denmark. Undoubtedly they will try again. We can no longer afford to give the English Defence League the benefit of the doubt, affording them the excuse of being merely a reaction to Islamic extremism. They represent nothing less than the British manifestation of an extremely concerning rightward shift in Europe; in the globalised age of the internet we shouldn’t separate Anders Behring Breivik from Golden Dawn or the EDL from the Immortals. Britain has just as much responsibility to tackle the far right as her European neighbours.
