Hundreds of Greeks and activists from 19 other European countries took to the streets of Athens on Dec. 15 in protest against the Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party critics said is behind some of the growing assaults against immigrants and is extremist and racist.
Golden Dawn won 18 seats in the Greek Parliament in the June elections and has continued to agitate against immigrants. Scores of civil rights groups, anti-racist movements and intellectuals, including Nobel laureates Dario Fo and Bernard Kouchner, walked through Athens in a silent march from the nation’s legislature to the Acropolis in what they called “a wake-up call” not only for the Greece, but other European nations facing rising tides of far-right extremism.
“We’re not denying the fact that Golden Dawn was elected to Parliament. Nor do we aspire to physically oust them from the chambers of democracy,” said Benjamin Abtan, the chief organizer and president of the European Grassroot Anti-racist Movement. “But Greeks have to realize that they are neo-Nazis and that their success story will whet the appetite of other far-right extremists in Europe. Racism, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism are growing without any strong and determined mobilizations from the democrats,” he said.
The European Grassroots Anti-racist Movement is a French based group that the march to highlight concerns over the rise of Nazism. Protest organizers said: “Let us be clear: fighting racism, anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in Greece does not mean fighting Greece but fighting this ideology of hatred spreading across the whole continent.”
Amptan said the group is “fighting against the rise of neo-Nazism in Greece because the Golden Dawn threatens democracy, multiplying attacks and racist statements and because the Golden Dawn is increasingly affecting many organizations and parties across Europe, Hungary, Latvia, Austria, Italy.
Despite weeks of planning, the demonstration drew few supporters and slim crowds but interference from a police force widely viewed as including some Golden Dawn sympathizers. Five activists – four French and one Greek national – were detained while trying to enter the grounds of the Acropolis to unfurl a giant protest banner. All were eventually released. The banner, which read Europe Against Anti-Nazism. was propped outside parliament instead.
Meanwhile Golden Dawn held a protest in Megara gainst what it called “uncontrolled crime and racism against Greeks” in Greece. The party stated people in the area are being forced out of their homes on a daily basis due to ongoing criminal incidents from illegal immigrants and the Roma camp.
(Source: Los Angeles Times, AP, IPTimes, To Vima)
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