Has the Sun Set on Golden Dawn?
Six years have passed since the brutal murder of Pavlos Fyssas, a rapper and antifascist activist openly opposing Greece’s Golden Dawn party. With its leader soon to testify in a case of murder, and only one European MP left, the party shuts down its Athens-based headquarters, hinting at a possible descent of one of Europe’s far-right strongholds.
In the evening of 18 September 2013, fifty people assembled outside the ‘Coral’ café, where Fyssas was watching a football game with his partner and friends. Later that night, when a Hellenic Police unit reached the crime scene, he was found injured with stab wounds, and, being still conscious, identified the perpetrator. Giorgios Roupakias, who soon admitted to the charge, was as a member of the cafeteria staff in one of Golden Dawn’s offices.
Golden Dawn immediately denied any links to the crime and condemned it. Yet, according to the Hellenic Police, Roupakias admitted to being a member of the party. Unanimously condemned by the Greek political scene, the crime eventuated in a public backlash, leading to several protests countrywide, aimed against the party which used to be the country’s third political force in that time. The people of Athens were no longer to hear ‘Blood, Honour, Golden Dawn’ (echoing the Hitler Youth), instead seeing the city’s streets provide venues for large-scale anti-fascist manifestations.
However, Greece was about to be shocked by another political murder – on 1 November 2013, two members of Golden Dawn were shot dead in what was probably an act of vengeance, though the case is still unsolved. Manolis Kapelonis and Giorgos Fountoulis were found dead inside the party’s Neo Irakleio office. The perpetrators have never been identified.
The investigation into the murder of Pavlos Fyssas is about to enter into its final stage. Once again, it can be found in the centre of international attention, as Nikos Michaloliakos, the leader of Golden Dawn, will now stand accused of instigating the crime. The case is precedential, even though Michaloliakos has already been held in detention for forming a criminal organisation, together with other 68 members of the party, including leadership, under similar accusations. Now, he is facing up to 20 years in prison for his part in the murder.
Once able to mobilise as many as 500,000 voters, the party now struggles to survive, with its loss of electorate mainly attributed to the outbreak of violence for which it is claimed to be responsible. The former third-largest political force of Greece came through the 2019 legislative election without a single parliamentary seat. Two out of three members of the European Parliament have already left the organisation. Though the last entry on Golden Dawn’s website heralds ‘Golden Dawn is not over!’, a mark is left by the date of publication – five months ago.
What has gone wrong? In an interview for the Guardian, a former prominent member of the party identified its inability to distance itself from national socialism, stemming from the fear of offending its hardcore support base, as one of the causes of the failure. Another reason may be found in the fragility of its support – after all, Golden Dawn majorly benefitted from the wave of political anger which followed the financial crisis of 2011. Now, hardly anyone believes in the remedy it promised to be. Instead of national pride, it is seen to have brought violence and instability.
Greece’s Golden Dawn is in decline; Italy’s Northern League no longer forms the ruling coalition. Whether these cases will prove precedential remains uncertain. A wholesale crisis of Europe’s far-right has arguably not yet materialised, but the hitherto good fortune of nationalist parties in the Mediterranean region is arguably less startling – nowhere else in the continent one can come so physically close to the issue of migration management, which once fuelled the campaigns of Golden Dawn.
Public mobilisation against violence proved a successful strategy in the case of Greece. Yet, we do not know whether other European societies may fall into and escape the extremist trap the same way. After all, it would be better not to find the results of hasty choices come into being. The decline of Golden Dawn does not mark an end of the decade of rage, as some would be inclined to say – the murder of two of its members remains unsolved, whilst its headquarters were recently subject to an attack by unidentified assailants. But its days as a powerful political force may, ultimately, be numbered.
