Det høyreekstreme partiet Gyllent Daggry har appell til unge grekere, det er ikke lenger en utgruppe. Hvis det var valg i dag ville partiet bli det tredje største.

The Independent har snakket med unge i Hellas om hva det er som får dem til å slutte seg til Gyllent Daggry, som er voldelig mot utlendinger og antisemittisk. Gjengangeren er at de gjør noe, de andre bare prater.

Krisen i Hellas har nå vart så lenge at den begynner å nedfelle seg i sinnet til den oppvoksende slekt. Det skal godt gjøres at de ikke tar inn noe av sinnet og depresjonen i omgivelsene.

The vigilante, truculent and anti-establishment features of Golden Dawn offer a seductive alternative to the radical left or anarchist movements that have traditionally appealed to Greece’s teenagers. Over 50 teachers, parents and teenage students from schools across Athens interviewed by The Independent agree that the party is slowly becoming fashionable, when three years ago it was barely known.

«It’s the feature of vitality: a need to show they’re strong, young and fresh and are creating something new: be it a new party, a new country,» explains Vassiliki Georgiadou, professor at Panteion University and an expert of far-Right wing radicalism who has studied Golden Dawn for years. «They discard the label of Nazism and instead play up the nationalist card. They use ancient Greek history as a camouflage to hide their true identity: that they’re fans of Hitler, anti-Semitism.»

Sixteen-year old Stavros doesn’t see his parents often as they work hard to put food on the table. His mother is a fervent supporter of the left wing Syriza party, but Stavros was drawn to the nationalist rhetoric of Golden Dawn. He admits that he has in the past thrown rocks and fruit at the homes of Pakistani residents.

«I did this to get them to respect our country because I love Greece so much,» he boasts. «Golden Dawn kids are not killers but people who are worried that we won’t be able to find jobs because of all those illegal immigrants.»

Evdoxia, also 16, wants to be a lawyer. She wears pink glasses and her manicured little finger sports a golden ring with a sparkly heart. Her nails and clothes are black – the favourite colour of many adolescents, but also of her favourite political party. «Golden Dawn is not a descendent of Nazism,» Evdoxia insists, playing with the cherry shaped pendant dangling from her neck. «Whoever thinks it is, doesn’t know what the party’s really about.»

She is typical of the new Golden Dawn supporter. The punishing austerity programme that has gripped Greece as it struggles to cling to its eurozone membership has radically eroded her middle class quality of life. The weekly supermarket shopping became monthly. Birthday and Christmas gifts vanished. Evdoxia is extremely worried about her future.

«Golden Dawn is trying to offer solutions amid difficult times and contrary to other parties, they actually do what they say they will,» she eloquently explains. The Zoro-style saviour tactics of this party is what also appealed to Evdoxia, who says her cousin was attacked and robbed by an African immigrant.

She discovered Golden Dawn on the internet – the far-right movement actively uses social media to expand their presence. A few months ago, Facebook removed the profile pages of Golden Dawn MPs and other related pages for breaching the site’s terms on racism and promoting violence, but there are plenty of other websites hosting their views.

The party is reaping the fruit of its tireless campaigning. Grassroots mobilisation is its main recruitment technique, and the party is actively involved in neighbourhood initiatives, especially in areas that saw a rise of crime and strong influx of migrants. One teen told of how party members sometimes hand out mobile phone numbers to youths, claiming they are to help protect them from crime when they return late from school.

Gyms, athletic and martial arts clubs are easy ground to recruit youngsters and there is even a patriotic supporters club, Galazia Stratia (Blue Army), which draws its membership from the youth. Music is also influential in attracting young followers. Two of Golden Dawn’s MPs are musicians. One of them, Artemis Matthaiopoulos, was the bass player of white power rock band Pogrom which sang the praises of Hitler’s Auschwitz death camp. Another nationalist song of theirs is entitled «Speak Greek Or Die.»

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/greeces-neofascists-are-on-the-rise-and-now-theyre-going-into-schools-how-golden-dawn-is-nurturing-the-next-generation-8477997.html