Golden Dawn: (my) personal affair (video)

The Greek neonazi party "Golden Dawn" (hereafter GD) became part of the greek public reality after its success to elect 18 members of the parlament (representing approximately the 7% of the electorate) in the elections of 2012. Despite its clearly neonazi origin, it succeeded in marketing itself as a nationalist part which came to defend the "betrayed" Greeks from their governments. This narrative found supporters in a part of the society which has been intensively hit by the financial crisis and would seek solution for its problems anywhere. Others were charmed by the nationalist rhetorics and thought that GD would protect them against globalization, a process that looked always as a threat in their eyes. As I look around Europe, I find similar phenomena in different european countries which tend to form a trend as they have some common characteristics. Of course, it's risky to generalize. In each country there are some "local" reason which boosted the far-right wing parties to the centre of politics. However it's interesting to observe this pan-european phenomenon.

I was always to curious to understand why more and more people all around Europe choose to vote far-right wing parties. This continent was completely destroyed by arrogant nationalisms some 70 years ago but this seems to mean nothing for a large amount of people. My curiosity was even fed by a personal affair: one of my cousins votes for GD. Therefore, it became very interesting for me to see how people like my cousin think and act.

An answer to my curiosity was given by the documentary "Golden Dawn: a personal affair" created by the journalist Angelique Kourounis (watch it at the end of this post). Although this documentary it's not impartial (actually the creator never claims to be impartial), the documentary gives a good description of the profile of the average GD voter. However it is much more interesting to observe the opinions that the active members of the party express. In GD you can find: deniers of the Jewish Holocaust, homophobics, racism mixed with islamophobia, women (!) phallocrats and lots of love and nostalgia for the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-1974). This is accompanied by strong doses of violence by the active GD squads. Does this sound familiar to you?

What would be the reply to this far-right trend? This is difficult to answer and I don't feel like have a good solution. However as long as this trend is partly expression of euroskepticism, it becomes clear there must be a struggle for a better European Union (EU). The EU has to become an inclusive institution which is closer and accountable to its people rather than the multinational companies. And this EU will never become reality unless we fight for it. It is duty of us who call ourselves Europeans to make an EU which protects and supports the weak, making the far-right parties seem like an obsolete, unattractive choice. Is it a bet we are going to win or shall we let the fear sped by these parties to conquer our lives?

Here you can watch the documentary in english (please activate the english subtitles)

While here you can watch it in french with french, spanish or catalan subtitles (please activate them)