| Sky News | - |
It
was supposed to be a remembrance rally, but as thousands packed Athens
to honour three fallen heroes, the black-clad crowd of men in military
fatigues and baseball caps crested with mangled swastikas, offered the
grimmest reminder yet of Greece's ...
Greece: Far-Right March On Athens
Holding torches and flags, thousands of supporters of Greece's extreme right party Golden Dawn take to the streets of Athens.
Golden Dawn said there were around 30,000 supporters who joined the march
It was supposed to be a
remembrance rally, but as thousands packed Athens to honour three fallen
heroes, the black-clad crowd of men in military fatigues and baseball
caps crested with mangled swastikas, offered the grimmest reminder yet
of Greece's tireless march to the far right.
Organised by Golden Dawn, which emerged from political obscurity here
to win 7% of the national vote last June, last night's event showcased
the group's biggest public gathering to date.Toting blue-and-white Greek flags, orange-red flares and wooden torches, some 30,000 supporters, according to organisers, gathered in central Athens, shouting slogans indicative of the party's virulent and truculent beliefs.
"We are winning the hearts and minds of the people, because we say it as it is," roared Ilias Kassidiaris, the party's spokesman.
"These politicians who have ruled us for decades are crooks. They have betrayed our national interests. They have led us to humiliating defeats," he said, referring to a near-war showdown with Nato ally Turkey in 1996.
Three Greek Airforce pilots were killed in that crisis and the dispute over contesting claims to a barren outcrop in Aegean Sea forced then US trouble-shooter Richard Holbrooke to intervene.
He ordered both Nato allies not only to climb down from their conflicting claims but to refrain from further ownership disputes of islands in the oil-rich Aegean.
For hardcore nationalists like Golden Dawn sympathisers, the retreat marked an embarrassing sell-out of national sovereignty - a theme gaining fresh appeal among the country's young and unemployed youth as foreign creditors demand greater control over the Greece's failing finances.
"They calls us fascists, thugs and criminals," says Vassilis, a 23-year-old recruit, who joined the party because of his disenchantment with the country's feckless political elite.
With extremism - left and right - polarising Greek society, hundreds of riot police and undercover officers were on alert on Saturday in a bid to thwart potential attacks, springing from the gathering, held within yards of the prime minister's office and the Turkish embassy in Athens. Surrounding roads, also, were cordoned off by police, bringing traffic to a halt and angering locals.
"For a nation that suffered dearly under the Nazis, neo-Nazi gatherings, like these, should be banned," said Sofia Laniti, a 47-year-old saleswoman.
Leftist radicals argue the so-called Imia Day protest is a veiled tribute to the party's true ideological mentor: Adolf Hitler.
The Nazi leader was appointed to the head of the German Chancellery on January 30, 1933, marking the start of a 12-year reign of terror across Europe.
Eighty years later, far-right parties feeding on popular resentment to growing fiscal austerity policies, are attracting growing applause in many corners of Europe. Sliding economies and rising unemployment, have voters largely giving the boot to mainstream parties they hold most responsible.
In Greece, attempts by the government to exclude Golden Dawn and its vehement nationalism that singles out immigrants as a threat, have backfired.
If anything, polls show, the far-right group has gained even greater political ground, since its startling entry to Parliament, becoming Greece's third largest party with over 10% national support.
Mr Kassidiaris said: "This is a day of remembrance. It's a day to remember that Golden Dawn is here to stay. And so long as it does, there will be hope for the country."
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Greece: Far-Right March On Athens
Unfortunately, this far rightest Nazi movement could spread through the worst hit areas of Europe where unemployment is 20% or above. Considering that in most countries on earth the under 30 unemployment is around 40% to 50% this movement might spread and bring down governments around Europe that are economically teetering. I think the world needs to watch closely this movement because it is a white racist movement against all other races just like Hitler's party was in the 1930s. And just like then it feeds on unemployment and the desperation of the masses. Right now the Golden Dawn party is attacking and harming illegal aliens in their countries but it could get worse as this movement grows from desperation.
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