Greece's Golden Dawn Falls to Leaden Dusk

[Shrillland]

On Wednesday, the Athens Appeals Court ruled that the far-right neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party was, in fact, a criminal organisation and has effectively outlawed the party nationwide: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greece-golden-dawn-trial-idUSKBN26S14Z?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1a7LfRRWLfZlPpb3Pr4Op_c3E_MlshcB8O-_eAioPmYyI9W6HvFLlDhqw

ATHENS (Reuters) - A Greek court on Wednesday declared far-right party Golden Dawn a criminal group, effectively banning a radical organisation that was once the third-largest party in the country.


The courtroom cheered, as did thousands who gathered outside the Athens appeals court. But the mood on the streets turned sour when isolated groups of self-styled anarchists threw petrol bombs at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon.

Golden Dawn was catapulted from obscurity to infamy in the space of a few years, attracting supporters with a xenophobic rhetoric at the height of Greece’s debilitating debt crisis.

But it started to unravel in September 2013, when a party supporter was arrested for the killing of Pavlos Fyssas, a musician and rapper aligned to the political left.

Golden Dawn members, including its leader Nikos Mihaloliakos, were rounded up and authorities launched an inquiry into whether the group was a criminal organisation in parallel to the probe into Fyssas’s death. The trial started in 2015.

Before the court ruled that the party leadership was running a criminal group, the court found Golden Dawn supporter Yiorgos Roupakias guilty of Fyssas’s murder.

Fyssas’s black-clad mother Magda, who has not missed a day since the trial started, burst into tears at the verdict ruling Golden Dawn criminal. “Pavlos you did it,” she said, according to Greek media.

The Golden Dawn members, including Mihaloliakos, were not present in court on Wednesday.

They were arrested in 2013, the first time that elected politicians had been detained in Greece since a military coup in 1967, and released after their pre-trial detention period expired.

Golden Dawn failed to win a single seat in last year’s parliamentary election that brought the conservative New Democracy party to power.

Prosecutors had charged 65 people, including 18 former Golden Dawn lawmakers, with being members of a criminal group. Their trial started in April 2015. At the time, the party said it was the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt.

Dozens of others on trial, party members and alleged associates, face convictions on charges that range from murder to perjury, linked to a spate of violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing activists.

Wednesday’s verdict sets the stage for the high-profile case to proceed with the court looking into sentencing for the murder of Fyssas and other violent attacks.

Tens of thousands rallied outside the heavily policed appeals court area, holding banners reading “Fascism, Never Again” and “Freedom for the People, Death to Fascism”.

“We must send a message to the younger generations, a message against fascism,” said 69-year-old Sophia. “It’s our duty to democracy to be here today, to show we are standing up against such criminal actions.”

Human rights group Amnesty International, which helped organise a network to record racist violence in Greece, said Wednesday’s verdict would boost efforts to fight hate crimes.

“The accusations against the leaders and members of Golden Dawn, including the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, expose a fissure that exists not just within Greece but across Europe and beyond,” said Nils Muiznieks, Europe director at Amnesty.

This was due to the continued violence carried out by both its members and leadership against migrants, liberals, and leftists. The once influential far-right party has now been outlawed, and it's now known as of yet what will happen to its 22 members of regional councils up and down the Peripheries.

So, NSG, what's your take on this news?

While I'm certainly not going to shed any tears for these cretins, I will say that there could be some angry supporters wanting to raise rabble in the short term. Long-term, I think they could try to create a new party giving lip service to the idea of legality, but GD was dying before this, and I see no reason why any successor should succeed.

[Honeydewistania]

Good riddance to fash rubbish

[Kowani]

There shall be no platform for fascism.
Good on Greece.

[Kyundao]

I'm part of the auth-right crowd and I don't even consider Golden Dawn right-wing in any way. This isn't a loss in my book.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I'm guessing the more extreme the viewpoint of a political party, the fewer people adhere to it, the harder it finds it to finance itself. Hence extreme parties like nazis and far left groups are more likely to indulge in criminal practices to sustain themselves.

[Dumb Ideologies]

I'm guessing the more extreme the viewpoint of a political party, the fewer people adhere to it, the harder it finds it to finance itself. Hence extreme parties like nazis and far left groups are more likely to indulge in criminal practices to sustain themselves.

This is true. But also - and this is regardless of whether there's any value to be found in a group's ideas - there's the factor that people who are willing to associate themselves with an ideology viewed as anathema by the society will naturally tend to include a disproportionate number of people who have antisocial personalities that are often associated with a criminal background. And if you view the current system as inherently illegitimate then there's a lower bar to breaking its laws.

[Albrenia]

Did they know their name makes them sound like a cult to the Old Ones or something?

[Punished UMN]

Did they know their name makes them sound like a cult to the Old Ones or something?

And the villains in Oblivion.

[Albrenia]

Did they know their name makes them sound like a cult to the Old Ones or something?

And the villains in Oblivion.

Thank you! I was wondering what it reminds me of.

+1 internets for UMN.

[Hakinda Herseyi Duymak istiyorum]

Greek democracy has dealt a blow to fascism. The whole world is shoulder to shoulder against terrorism !

[The Huskar Social Union]

Get fucked Nazis

[Risottia]

A band of criminals gets jailed and faces the full force of the LAW.

Isn't that one of the things the extreme right-wing is supposed to be cheering for?

[Loben III]

Accomplish a task and others will take their place, noting important anyway.

[Konolas]

Good on Greece

[Phoenicaea]

historical alternative for italy’s past century 20’s, if mussolini had been condemned for matteotti assassination. chief claimed ‘political responsibility of deeds’, which this case got judged for.

resemblance apart, the important is to notice how greek nowadays constitution is much ordered and well made. it also provides a strict step-by-step protocol to fill vacancies of high institutions.

‘modest’ countries have often better constitutions, because they do not reform it after, so stolid.

[Washington Resistance Army]

A band of criminals gets jailed and faces the full force of the LAW.

Isn't that one of the things the extreme right-wing is supposed to be cheering for?

Not even remotely. That's a wishy-washy center-right thing. The extreme right is pretty arguably more revolutionary than the left nowadays.

[Saiwania]

This ruling is completely invalid and its not going to stop the party's continued existence, even if it has to be under a different name. This kangaroo court is essentially blaming the misbehavior of some rank and file on the party's leadership and the party itself. If Greece wants to defend some rapper as their hill to die on, that is the Greek government's business I suppose, but it reflects how pitiful the Greek state has fallen when to this day, Greece's government is incapable of resolving its larger internal problems and can't meet challenges either foreign or domestic.

[Ifreann]

Greece sticking it to fascists? Alexa, play Coat of Arms.

[The Socialist Republic of Astrakhan]

lets enjoy by eating mutton briyani about the Greek ban on the neo nazi and pro nazi party

[SD_Film Artists]

And the villains in Oblivion.

Thank you! I was wondering what it reminds me of.

+1 internets for UMN.

I thought it's one of the fake terrorist organisations that Hans Gruber mentions in Die Hard.

It's Asian Dawn

[The Holy Therns]

Well that added some flavor to today's coffee, for sure. Good going, Greece.

[Valrifell]

A band of criminals gets jailed and faces the full force of the LAW.

Isn't that one of the things the extreme right-wing is supposed to be cheering for?

Not even remotely. That's a wishy-washy center-right thing. The extreme right is pretty arguably more revolutionary than the left nowadays.

You type this but I read "Hi, I'm WRA and I'm a crypto-fascist"

[The Emerald Legion]

On the one hand, Golden Dawn were assholes.

On the other, One more demonstration as to the lack of freedom in the Eurosphere.

[Valrifell]

On the one hand, Golden Dawn were assholes.

On the other, One more demonstration as to the lack of freedom in the Eurosphere.

People do not have the freedom to organize to destroy the concept of freedom. That's paradoxical.

[The Emerald Legion]

On the one hand, Golden Dawn were assholes.

On the other, One more demonstration as to the lack of freedom in the Eurosphere.

People do not have the freedom to organize to destroy the concept of freedom. That's paradoxical.

No it's not. Poppers paradox is stupid nonsense.