Embedded Files
Volume 3 | Issue 7
Article by Stephen Woodward. Edited by Simon Mackley.
On June 17th the people of Greece will return to the polls for the country’s second general election in the space of two months. The last election, held on May 6th, proved to be a historic one for modern Greece. Despite not resulting in the formation of a government, of either majority or coalition character, this election sent shockwaves through the field of Greek politics. With no government to push through change, either pro or anti-austerity, Greece has gone into a coma; a coma which many will hope the country is shook from by the June 17th election, hopefully awakening the country’s fortunes. The two parties that had dominated the Greek political scene since the 1970s, New Democracy (moderate conservative) and PASOK (moderate socialist), both suffered heavy losses, with the previously ruling PASOK pushed back into third place.
PASOK, the party of the centre left, was founded in 1974 after the fall of a military dictatorship that had controlled Greece from 1967 to 1974. PASOK were the first social democratic party to win a majority in a Greek parliament. It had been the brainchild of Andreas Papandreou and was the last party to control the Greek parliament under his son George Papandreou Jr. (I’ve previously covered this dynastic trend in Greek politics here: Keeping it in the Family: Families and Dynasties in Greek Politics)
The other big players in Greek politics are New Democracy. Like their nemeses PASOK, New Democracy also rose from the ashes of the colonel’s junta in 1974. Their founder Konstantinos Karamanlis had, like Andreas Papandreou, been a long term fixture on the Greek political scene. Like Papandreou, Karamanlis also enjoyed numerous stints as Prime Minister, in addition to his son also assuming leadership of his party. These two parties, born with a newfound hope for liberty and freedom in 1974, dominated the Greek political scene for the last four decades. The sudden downfall of PASOK and the huge losses incurred by New Democracy are therefore extremely shocking.
The new big boys on the Greek political scene, responsible for displacing PASOK, are SYRIZA. SYRIZA, whose name is a pun on the Greek word συρριζα (syrrhiza), meaning ‘to the roots’, is best described as a coalition of coalitions. The leanings of the party are leftist, described as a ‘Coalition of the Radical Left’ and the parties it absorbed were largely splinters of the KKE (Communist Party of Greece). Its leader, Alexis Tsipras, was the previous leader of the largest of these splinters: Synaspismos. A former Civil Engineer, at the age of 37 Tsipras is the youngest ever leader of a Greek political party. The prodigious Tsipras, however, was unable to live up to his talents when asked to form a coalition government in the wake of May’s inconclusive results.
One of the biggest shocks of the election was the acquisition of seats by the far right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn). The origins of Chrysi Avgi are the usual tale of bigoted extremism. Registered as a political party in 1993, it set out largely as a xenophobic nationalist party. Throughout the 1990s party members engaged in numerous attacks on foreigners and students, whilst the party’s magazine even made a call for vigilantism against immigrants and those with leftist politics. Some members of the party even became part of the Greek Volunteer Guard, a paramilitary group, who took part in the Bosnian War and were involved in the Srebenica massacre.
Chrysi Avgi members have not just concentrated on killing foreigners outside of Greek territory, however. In 1999, during an international football match, Albanian fans burnt a Greek flag in front of cameras; incensed by the disrespect of the Albanians one Chrysi Avgi member then went on a killing spree in Athens shooting nine immigrants as he felt ‘insulted by the burning of the Greek flag.’ Other Chrysi Avgi members founded the ‘Blue Army’ a football hooligan group dedicated to enforcing respect to Greece, which has been involved in numerous brawls with fans from opposing nations. Far from distancing itself from the actions of these imbeciles, Chrysi Avgi’s own newspaper praised their stupidity.
Despite their racist actions, use of the Nazi salute and self-definition as the ‘People’s Nationalist Movement’, Chrysi Avgi vehemently deny being a Neo-Nazi party. As you can probably infer from their flag and its colour scheme this refutation seems slightly ludicrous. Chrysi Avgi is, however, a highly ludicrous party. For the first years of its life the party advocated Hellenic Paganism as the state religion, advocating the sacrifice goats and praise Zeus, Hades and Bacchus for all of life’s wonders. The party has since also given the Greek Orthodox Church the green light as a religion for Greece, in order to appeal to a broader base of voters. Perhaps this has been the reason behind its shock 7% share of the national vote at the May election and its consequent acquisition of 21 seats out of 300 in the Greek parliament.
The eyes of Europe are once again sternly fixed upon Greece. The result of the election on June 17th will no doubt have radical repercussions on the future of both the European Union and the Euro. For now SYRIZA hold the cards, and are likely to either be kingmakers in a coalition situation or even end up as the ruling party. In the past weeks SYRIZA ditched their coalition status and proclaimed themselves to be a united party, meaning that they are now, according to a rule in the Greek constitution, eligible to be awarded an additional 50 seats if they are the party with the largest share of the vote. However, SYRIZA’s past politics clearly show that it will not adhere to the austerity measures that European leaders wish Greece to follow.
Some claim that abandoning the conditions laid down by Eurozone leaders mean that Greece will drop out of the Euro and be plunged into dire economic straits. Although I, however, would tend to favour the view that should Greece go along SYRIZA’s anti-austerity measures and fall out of the Euro, it will sooner be able to concentrate on rebuilding its economy. Only through expansion, creating jobs and opportunities can a country ever hope to foster growth. If this is indeed what happens then the success of SYRIZA may well initiate a wave of anti-austerity politics across the continent, as well as a rejection of the restrictions of the Eurozone.
Yet there are other, more troubling, concerns for which Europeans will be watchful during the next round of Greek elections. Further gains by the undoubtedly Neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi might well be a warning toll of a resurgence of the seeming attractions of far-right politics to the masses and the danger that Europe might well fall prey once more to the fascist opportunists who seized upon the discontent of a ruined economy in the inter-war period. They are, comparably, a more politicised Greek version of the English Defence League. Like Chrysi Avgi, The English Defence League draws its leaders, such as the infamous ‘Tommy Robinson’, from the bigoted idiots who think it apt to create mayhem around sport. The EDL also cites the disrespect paid to the nation by others, namely radical islamists, as one of the formative reasons behind its existence. Chrysi Avgi, with its election success, is then perhaps a warning of what such detestable groups, such as the EDL could achieve in the future, if discontent amongst the working classes is allowed to rage. Whatever the outcome may be, it is most certain that, it will be a long time before Greece sees the true golden dawn it so desperate needs.
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