Key developments:
- Main issues in the Greek far-right agenda, as expressed in their public media, continue to be anti-vaccination, anti-immigration, as well as anti-feminism and anti-LGBTQI+.
- No notable public events with the participation of far-right groups, parties, or persons, on a national or international level, have taken place during this month.
- The beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine has stirred far-right activity in the social media sphere. The overwhelming majority of far-right opinions voiced, including “Golden Dawn” and its two offsprings (“Ellines” and “ELASYN”) are in support of Vladimir Putin.
Background:
Greek far-right has had always a limited international reach as it always focused on the national level, as a result both of their inherent ideological isolationism and the language barrier making international communications difficult. At this time, the most internationally active entities seem to be ELASYN (utilizing Ioannis Lagos’s connections in the EP) and ProPatria [participating, from time to time, in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events with other groups]. Still, these international connections are very limited and they rarely produce visible events.
The known groups and parties of the Greek far-right remain in a general state of disarray, despite a general tendency in the public discourse to be shifted more to the right. Some further clarification is needed here, as this phenomenon is the result of (mainly) two factors:
- The heads of the organizational structure of Golden Dawn remain in prison. While Golden Dawn was a party modelled after and inspired by NSDAP, seeking to create a National Socialist movement to ride on and realise its ultimate goal, a Nazi regime, it also was the major actor in Greek far-right politics outside of the mainstream right-wing party (New Democracy) from 2012 until 2019. As a result of this, other groups thrived by either operating in GD’s shadow or cooperating with GD members and leaders in the local level. This ecosystem of interrelations was disrupted by a) infighting, as the Golden Dawn Trial was reaching its end and prominent members blamed each other for the expectedly disfavourable outcome of the trial, and b) the broken chain of command after the imprisonment of GD leaders as well as the dissolution of networks resulting from the split among the three prominent leading figures of GD.
- The far-right finds expression under the ruling party. As the single-party government of New Democracy implements more and more of the policies favoured by the far-right, and prominent cabinet and party figures publicly embrace nationalist, law-and-order, racist, and anti-immigration rhetoric, the people who would fuel a far-right movement with their participation are content with the current political situation. Moreover, the integration of prominent far-right figures (Voridis, Georgiadis, Plevris) amplifies this effect. The far-right views this situation as “winning the cultural hegemony” in the country.
At the same time, the still recent experience of the Golden Dawn Trial has taught a lesson to violence-oriented far-right groups: they rarely publicize or declare ownership of their actions in order to avoid criminal law consequences. This tendency seems to push far-right activities below the visible line of public sphere, which also limits their impact.
The ultra-nationalist party “Greek Solution” that sits in Parliament has also not produced any significant political activity for months. Its main platform for gathering support is the broadcasts of its founder and leader (Kyriakos Velopoulos) in regional TV stations in Northern Greece.
*New and emerging actors: *
• There has been no significant activity by new or emerging actors during this month.
International links:
- There has been no significant activity on the international level for Greek far-right parties, groups, or key persons during this month.
- The far-right in Greece is strongly supporting Putin on the Russian invasion in Ukraine.