[MGSA-L] Greece's Neo-Nazis Were Scarier Than Anyone Imagined

[June Samaras]

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Greece's Neo-Nazis Were Scarier Than Anyone Imagined

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/13/greece_s_neo_nazis_golden_dawn_were_scarier_than_anyone_imagined

Prosecutors in the trials to disband Golden Dawn claim the group
slaughtered sheep to practice knife techniques, carried around bazookas,
and was training to “break into parliament with tanks.”

BY YIANNIS BABOULIAS NOVEMBER 13, 2014


ATHENS, Greece — In the prosecutors' 697-page case file, he is known only
as Witness E -- a Golden Dawn ex-member turned state informant. And what he
has to share about the neo-Nazi political party -- its ideology, its
training methods, and its plans for the future -- is terrifying.

Golden Dawn recruited a butcher to train its members in the art of using a
knife effectively, in order to "neutralize opponents," Witness E told
prosecutors. Party members participated in the mass slaughter of sheep in
various farms around the Attica region, which encompasses Athens and its
suburbs, to learn the best technique for "striking directly at the
jugular." He'd heard, Witness E said, that the same butcher supplied guns
to Golden Dawn members, as well. Other evidence prosecutors uncovered seems
to back up his claim: The case file is littered with photos of members in
military clothing carrying knives, swords, handguns, rifles, and, in one
case, even a bazooka.

All this training was "in preparation to overthrow the Greek government,"
Witness E suggested to prosecutors -- a jarring reminder of how little the
Greek public truly understood the operational capabilities of Golden Dawn,
or what the party even aimed to be. "They kept telling us that we'll break
into the parliament with tanks," he said.

The prosecutors' report -- a copy of which was obtained by Foreign Policy
-- was prepared in advance of the trials of dozens of members of Golden
Dawn on charges ranging from assault to human trafficking to murder. On the
eve of the first of the trials, slated to start mid-November, the
investigation has revealed a group that had bigger, scarier ambitions than
even their most cynical enemies imagined -- and, despite its revolutionary
goals, had far closer ties to the ruling coalition than much of the public
realized.

Founded in the mid-1980s, Golden Dawn originally started out as a small
fringe discussion group -- one that only later developed electoral
ambitions. Even after entering politics, Golden Dawn remained a bit player
for much of its existence, in some elections winning less than 1 percent of
the vote. Its breakthrough came in 2010, in the wake of the global
financial crisis. With unemployment rates in Greece that would eventually
reach as high as 28 percent in November 2013, the group rode a wave of
government-directed anger, scoring its first electoral breakthrough in 2010
when one of its candidates won a seat on the Athens City Council. In the
following years, the group continued to generate headlines for its violent
attacks on immigrants and leftists, its fiery nationalistic rhetoric, and,
finally, its electoral success: Golden Dawn sent shockwaves throughout
Europe in 2012, when it won 18 seats in parliament with nearly 7 percent of
the vote.
The party's share of support has now fallen to around 6 percent in the
polls -- its lowest since it 2012, but likely still enough to win more than
10 seats in parliament for a group that, according to prosecutors, was less
a political party than a full-fledged criminal organization.
* * *
The downfall of Golden Dawn began with the September 2013 stabbing death of
a Greek anti-fascist musician named Pavlos Fyssas by a man named Giorgos
Roupakias. Roupakias initially denied he was a Golden Dawn member, but
photos and videos of him at party events quickly demonstrated otherwise.
The crackdown that came next was swift and unprecedented: All of Golden
Dawn's MPs and more than 60 party members are facing a range of criminal
charges, and more than 30 members of the party leadership are currently
detained, including the party's founder and historical leader, Nikolaos
Michaloliakos.
The police operation against Golden Dawn may have started with a murder
investigation, but photos, videos, and phone records in the case file show
party members were involved in a web of criminal activities that ranged
from possession of firearms and explosives -- illegal in Greece -- to money
laundering, running protection rings, human trafficking, and aggravated
assault. Several members face charges related to the stabbing, including
one MP, Ioannis Lagos, who prosecutors say directed the murder. There is
also at least one case of sexual assault in the offices of the Sparta
branch of Golden Dawn that was reportedly covered up by local officials.

Golden Dawn's party leaders have long officially denied any link to Nazism,
despite appearing to draw inspiration from Nazis for their imagery, songs,
and rhetoric. But videos and photos obtained by the authorities from
confiscated laptops and hard drives belonging to various party members and
officials appear to belie these claims. They show party leaders dressed in
S.S. uniforms, giving the Nazi salute. In one of the videos,
swastika-draped Golden Dawn members train with firearms, under the
instructions of MP Ilias Kasidiaris and other elected officials. Another
shows groups of activists in paramilitary uniforms marching, their faces
covered with motorcycle helmets. In at least one case, these
paramilitary-style groups reportedly participated in attacks against
immigrants in 2011, with Kasidiaris and press officer Ilias Panagiotaros
barking orders from the sidelines. But the most damning evidence concerns
the days leading up the death of the anti-fascist musician on Sept. 18,
2013, and its aftermath.

In a Sept. 13, 2013, text message exchange between Golden Dawn MP Lagos and
the leader of the local Golden Dawn office in Nikaia, a suburb of Athens,
Lagos appears to sign off on an attack on a group of leftists affiliated
with the shipyard unions of Perama, a port city west of Athens. "The
commies are in for a beating in Perama," Lagos's text reads. "Take 30 guys
and drop by." Around 50 party members carried out the attack that night,
which sent nine people to the hospital. No one was immediately arrested
after the violence.

One of those attacked confirmed to me earlier this year that "they were
hitting us with sticks that had nails in the end. They were looking to kill
someone."
A week later, a chain of command that led right to the top of Golden Dawn
appears to have sanctioned, or at least known about, the attack on Fyssas,
the musician. Union officials say they believe Golden Dawn, having failed
to cow the leftists a week earlier, staged the attack to solidify the
party's dominance in the shipyards of Perama and in Nikaia as a whole.
Prosecutors have mapped out a web of phone calls that show that party
leader Michaloliakos himself was contacted both before and immediately
after the stabbing. Michaloliakos is currently being charged with belonging
to a criminal organization.
* * *
The sitting government, led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, has been
quick to celebrate its role in saving Greece from the neo-Nazi threat, but
in bringing down Golden Dawn, the government has exposed itself to a series
of potentially embarrassing revelations about just how close the
relationship between New Democracy, the senior coalition member in
parliament, and the neo-Nazis had become.

A few months before he was detained, Kasidiaris -- the 33-year-old Vice
once dubbed "the playboy of the Greek far-right," who, before the arrest,
was positioning himself as the natural heir to Michaloliakos -- attempted
to blackmail a prominent member of Greece's New Democracy party, the senior
partner in Greece's coalition government. Kasidiaris released a tape in
which he appeared to be discussing details of the case and possible
outcomes with New Democracy's cabinet secretary, Takis Baltakos, a few
months after the arrests.

On the tape, Baltakos can be heard telling Kasidiaris that "there is no
evidence against you" repeatedly and telling him that the crackdown was
politically motivated -- that Prime Minister Samaras was worried that
Golden Dawn's popularity was a threat to his conservative ruling coalition.
The scandal led to Baltakos's resignation.

Even so, it now looks like the links between Baltakos and Golden Dawn were
gravely underestimated. According to the most recent revelations, from
further recordings Golden Dawn itself has leaked and phone records
intercepted by government investigators, Baltakos was more than a
sympathetic ear. Not only did he publicly suggest that New Democracy form a
coalition with Golden Dawn in order to attract right-wing voters, but he
was also in contact with Golden Dawn's MPs, directing them how to vote on
crucial matters in parliament, essentially aligning them with the
coalition's goals.

A series of text messages between an unnamed aide acting as a link between
Baltakos and Kasidiaris contain instructions for various votes on matters
ranging from drug policy to military schools. They also show that Baltakos
sent his "congratulations" on the behavior of the party's MPs in the
parliament, including on one instance when a Golden Dawn MP, during an
argument on the floor, called members of the opposition party Syriza
"goats" and "filthy" people before getting kicked out of the chamber.
Throughout, the text messages show a familiarity between the two
politicians: "Takis ... came in and wants to see you," one of the messages
read, using the secretary's first name. The problem is that Baltakos was
not just anybody inside New Democracy: He was close with Prime Minister
Samaras and his personal advisors.

New Democracy has always had mixed feelings toward Golden Dawn, an
ambivalence driven largely by the view of a "specific nuclei" within the
party, said Yiannis Mavris, a Greek political analyst, in an interview
earlier this year: People like Baltakos and other close advisors to the
prime minister see them less as thugs and more as misguided comrades.

The two parties competed for some of the same voters, and New Democracy saw
Golden Dawn as a threat on its right flank. But for some, like Baltakos,
the far right was a natural extension of New Democracy, Greece's main
center-right party. Reports in the Greek mainstream media now suggest that
Baltakos, who is still in public life, is trying to set up a new, "serious"
Golden Dawn, potentially with Ilias Kasidiaris at the helm if he's
acquitted, and with the co-operation of Michaloliakos's brother, Athens
lawyer Takis Michalolias -- who, the same reports suggest, has been quietly
recruiting new members since at least last year. Golden Dawn was already
trying to present a new, respectable face during the 2014 European
elections, where the party managed to garner 9.4 percent of the vote.
During those elections, the party ran retired army officials -- in contrast
with their parliamentary slate which included heavy metal musicians and
bouncers.
The political consequences of the trials may be far-reaching. With the
Greek economy showing only marginal improvements, and with the opposition
calling for early elections next year, Samaras seems likely to try to
capitalize on the unfolding prosecution. The prime minister has boasted of
being the man who brought down Golden Dawn, dubbing them "Nazi
sympathizers" in a talk earlier this year and denouncing their ideology,
saying, "blood, sacrifices and our memory of history are violently insulted
by those who today bear the symbols of Nazism."

"New Democracy can't back down," said Dimitris Psarras, a veteran
investigative reporter and expert on the Greek far right. "It's profiting
from what's happening."
But the trials also threaten to expose further links between New Democracy
and the far right. Samaras so far has refused to answer questions on both
Baltakos and other instances in which members of his party appeared to be
sympathizing with the Golden Dawn and its voters. (Just this past week, one
Samaras advisor told the newspaper Kathimerini that New Democracy should
consider opening up to far-right groups.) That former Minister of Public
Order and Citizen Protection Nikos Dendias was sitting on 33 cases
involving various Golden Dawn members, but only filed charges against them
after his hand was forced by the September murder, has also called into
question Samaras's commitment to stamping out the right wing.

But whether the trials, which will run concurrently, beginning with an
assault case today and running through January, will succeed is a different
matter entirely. There are "serious gaps" in the evidence backing the
charges that Golden Dawn was a criminal organization, Psarras said. Should
the trials go badly for the prosecution, they could easily backfire, he
said, winning sympathy for the party. The trials could also take place in a
particularly politicized climate, he said, should there be early elections;
some Greeks might see the trials less as a means of delivering justice and
more as a political power play.

For Greece, the next few months are crucial. Golden Dawn's main body of
activists has mostly gone silent. But smaller attacks are taking place
across Athens, against LGBT activists and leftists, some allegedly by
Golden Dawn supporters still roaming the streets. Whether this low-level
violence eventually fades away and disappears -- or whether it ramps up
again -- depends very much on whether prosecutors succeed where political
officials failed: in disbanding what had grown into the biggest neo-Nazi
party in Europe.

-- 
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
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