With social unrest raging again in Greece – this time over the killing of an anti-fascist for which a member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was arrested – major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) leader Alexis Tsipras said austerity measures being imposed on the orders of international lenders created the atmosphere that let the extremists rise.
Tsipras, whose party is also against the terms of bailouts from the lenders that came with pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and public worker firings, said Golden Dawn is gaining popular support because of “barbaric austerity” as he delivered a speech in Germany as part of left-wing Die Linke’s campaign ahead of the Sept. 22 federal elections there.
“We have to stop the spread of the neo-Nazis and this cannot happen through wishful thinking but by eradicating the hateful ideology and ending the barbaric policy of austerity,” said Tsipras in a speech in Wiesbaden, where he was accompanied by Die Linke’s former co-chairman, Oskar Lafontaine.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, seeking re-election, supports bailouts for Greece but only on condition of harsh terms. Germany is the biggest contributor to $325 billion in two rescue packages from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) and has made enormous profits off Greece’s misery.
While Golden Dawn, which has 18 seats in Parliament, has been tied to numerous assaults as part of its anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, anti-Capitalist, anti-American, anti-foreigner, anti-bank, anti-EU, anti-gay, anti-Muslim agenda, SYRIZA has also been accused of stoking anarchist violence that led to the killing of three bank workers during an anti-austerity rally in Athens in 2010, as well as egging on demonstrators to attack police and government and capitalist targets.
Tsipras, whose party has recently gained an edge in the polls over the ruling New Democracy Conservatives of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, has said if he came to power he would restore everyone’s pay and benefits, rehire all the fired workers, cut taxes, and increase spending on social programs although Greece is broke and relies on the bailouts to survive. He didnt’ explain where he would get the money to fulfill his promises.
Tsipras then traveled to Austria, where he held meetings with a number of politicians in Vienna.
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