Greece's Golden Dawn Party a scary development for Europe
Most Greeks are probably not very happy to have witnessed the far-right Golden Dawn party take as much of the Greek electorate as they did this weekend. But despite the party's relatively low polling numbers, the rise of the anti-immigration, nationalistic party is troubling news.
Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos speaks during a news conference in front of a banner with the twisting Maeander, an ancient Greek decorative motif that the party has adopted as its symbol in Athens, Sunday, May 6, 2012. The far-right Golden Dawn party took as much as 7 percent of the vote, according to exit polls, as Greeks punished traditionally dominant parties that backed harsh austerity measures tied to debt relief agreements.
Petros Giannakouris/AP
The vast majority of Greeks are probably not very happy to have witnessed the Golden Dawn party take as much of the Greek electorate as they did this weekend. But it happened.
No sense in pretending it didn't.
The irony is that while Golden Dawn is considered a hard-right, fascist party (as most Neo-Nazi movements are), the economic policies of the original Nazis were as far-left as anything imaginable in this day and age. TIME Magazine named Adolf Hitler their 1934 Man of the Year and a big part of their profile centered on the anti-capitalism of the Nazi party:
"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany's bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism."
And when you consider that 71 years ago, the Greeks were brutalized by the rise of a fascist Germany during the occupation and resistance that would claim 400,000 Greek lives, the irony takes an even more tragic turn.
Once again, it is important to note that the majority of Greeks are not represented - either politically or spiritually - by the anti-immigration, nationalistic policies of the Golden Dawn party.
But still, this is a very frightening development for Europe.