The extent to which Angela Merkel’s toxic austerity measures have poisoned the people of Europe became clear this week as France voted in their first Socialist President for 17 years, and 6.9% of Greek voters picked an ultra Right-wing neo-Nazi extremist party over any of the established political players.
Golden Dawn received only 0.23% of votes in the previous election; the exponential growth in popularity highlights how severely Greek citizens have been affected by the Eurozone debt crisis and the harsh cut backs that have accompanied it. It is a common motif of political history that voters will turn to the extreme right in times of adversity.
The over-worked muscular bodies of the black T-shirt wearing Golden Dawn party have taken to the streets of Athens in recent weeks with two purposes: to feed the deprived elderly; and to wage a war of fists with the city’s foreign population. Reports suggest that after dropping off food bundles in transparent acts of sycophancy, the burly gang take to hurling vicious invective at anybody who is brave enough to speak out against their menacing agenda.
“Out of my country, out of my home! How will we do it? Use your imagination. This victory is dedicated to all the brave youngsters who wear black T-shirts with Golden Dawn written in white.” – The speech given by Leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, after the weekend’s election.
The Golden Dawn party acutely deny any violence against foreign immigrants on their behalf.
When asked what his first abuse of power would be Mihaloliakos replied: “All the illegal immigration out! Out of my country, out of my home!” He plans to build modern day concentration camps to hold immigrants prisoner and has spoken of planting landmines along the Turkish border in sentiments that remind of the late Kim Jong-il.
It is the first time that an extreme Right party has had seats in parliament since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974 and it marks a dangerous stage for Greece in terms of its precarious position inside of the Eurozone.
The crippling austerity, that is a prerequisite to the bailout package that Greece received earlier this year, has fractured Greek voters to the point that no coalition government could be formed because the votes were scattered too sparsely across the board.
The fear in and around continental Europe is that another election will cost ever more money that the country cannot afford; the uncertainty between governance will breed fear among investors; and even when a government is elected, the new leaders may well decide to ditch the EU-imposed cutbacks in favour of an independent, defaulting Greece.
A Greek exit could prove catastrophic to the single currency as the threat of contagion across the 17-nation bloc would wreak devastating consequences to the region’s fragile banking sector.
The Golden Dawn party salute their bating crowds like Nazis and their symbol is a disfigured swastika; they represent the dangers of technocracy replacing democracy when a population has been pushed too close to the edge.
Their leader Mihaloliakos issued a chilling statement that should act as a warning to the rest of Europe: “Greece is only the beginning. You know exactly what I mean.”
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