Buy-out of Golden Dawn can work, hostile takeover will not

by

Kassandra

24/09/2013 - 8:35am

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All of a sudden over the past few days, Greece has not only entered the realm of the unexpected but has reached the point where a minor, random event can upset the socio-political stability of the entire country. And this is something that can ultimately have serious spill-over effects for other European countries, beginning in the south and gradually moving north.

The issue in question is that of Greece’s Golden Dawn (Χρυσή Αυγή in Greek) party. This party is a product of a marginal far-right group of young people who sympathise with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and who have found a snug ideological harbour for a new mix of ancient Greek philosophies and extreme neo-Nazi ideas.

Golden Dawn existed for years primarily as a reaction to the communist and the quasi-communist socialist organisations that flourished in Greece and used similar practices to impose themselves on the political stage.

Three years ago on the 5th of May, three young bank clerks were burned alive while trapped inside the downtown Athens branch office of Marfin Bank during a leftist organised and staged riot. This was all under the watchful eye of police officers who stood by as fire fighters struggled to enter the building in order to save the three ill-fated bank clerks.

Something very similar happened in the wee hours of the morning of September 18 at a cafeteria in the periphery of Athens during a fight between communists and members of the far-right party. A supporter of Golden Dawn knifed and killed a communist fighter under the watchful eyes of six police officers.

These are the facts.

From that day on, all political parties thought it was their chance to destroy Golden Dawn and split their electoral votes.

The story of Golden Dawn is very interesting and worth telling because it has a valuable lesson for European politicians since what Greece is living through right now may soon touch Europe.

From a marginal extreme group, Golden Dawn acquired political strength suddenly in June 2012 when one of its very few members, Elias Kasidiaris, slapped a communist MP after she attempted to hit him with a copy of the Rizospastis newspaper, the organ of the Greece’s communist party. After this, Kasidiaris threw a glass of water at a socialist MP who insulted him. All this happened on live television. You can watch the video clip athttp://youtu.be/Z__aFysUHnw.

The point is that that slap helped Golden Dawn to pass from a marginal group to a political party with enough votes (7%) to win 18 seats in the parliament.

Up until the September 18 killing, Golden Dawn was publicly quoted as having 12% in the opinion polls and over 20% in the secret polls conducted by the various political parties. Now, recent polls made public by the parties suggest a rapid decline in popularity. However, realistically speaking, with the current “witch hunt” no Greek will admit to being a supporter or even a sympathiser of this party.

Greeks, by nature, are a leftist leaning people as regards the principles of democracy and freedom that they hold so dear. Therefore, at least 20% of those who voted for Golden Dawn are neither fascists nor Nazis. They are desperate and unemployed. They are senior citizens who have seen their pensions reduced from €2,000 to less than €700. They are sick and seriously ill pensioners who worked faithfully and paid all their social security dues their whole life and now have no medicine because hospitals do not give out medicine any more and they have no money to buy medicine. They are those who queue at shelters for a free meal intelligently and systematically offered by Golden Dawn.

Not included are those brave souls who commit suicide because they are too proud to beg for a meal and because they do not want to starve to death. It takes courage to commit suicide. Unfortunately, many die this way in Greece. For obvious reasons, however, the authorities are covering up this news.

All these Greeks are neither Nazis nor fascists. They are desperate senior citizens having reached the ultimate level of misery.

It is time the European Union opens its eyes and ears.

European Commission President Jose Barroso, acting on his own initiative, sent a special task force to Greece. The 50 officials on the task force are supposedly in Greece to advise the country’s ministers. However, from what we understand, nobody is listening to them. Indeed, the only thing that Greek politicians care about is to survive the upcoming political and social typhoon and no matter what the president’s men say, they always reply, “Yes, of course” and then do nothing.

There’s nothing wrong with this, right? If the president of the European Union is happy with the performance of his emissaries, it is fine with us too. Anyone who knows the Greeks or the Cypriots or the Portuguese, not to mention the other Mediterraneans, should not expect anything more from them.

But what if (and this is a big IF) something goes wrong in Greece or in Cyprus or in Portugal (where the Commission is preparing to send a similar task force of saviours), then the European Commission will be held co-responsible for the mess. This is serious because the entire community budget will not be enough to pay for the damages.

Golden Dawn is definitely a threat to Greece, but it’s not just a Greek problem. It is equally and far more importantly a European problem and any effort to fight this evil with the police or with other oppressive means will prove counterproductive and will bring the opposite results.

The only way to marginalise Golden Dawn is to give back to the Greeks what has been taken from them. Europe must rapidly understand that if they do not generously pay for the Greeks to get back their pensions, to get back their medical insurance, to find a job and conclusively resume a life of dignity, Golden Dawn will continue to grow in popularity. And no matter what Brussels or Athens does, it will become a big player in the political world of Greece and also of Europe.

Indeed, if the Europeans do not understand that the only way to pacify Greece and avoid any derailing to the left or to the right, is to pay the damages (which still are relatively low). Otherwise next May, Brussels will have to welcome to the European Parliament some six to eight new MEPs from Golden Dawn together with their colleagues from all over Europe - all products of the European Central Bank’s austerity measures. And then there will be nothing left to do but laugh.