Anti-terror police have raided the homes of three MPs of the neo-fascist party Golden Dawn according to local media reports.
The three MPs, Stathis Boukouras, Panagiotis Iliopoulos and Giorgos Germenis face charges of managing and directing a criminal organisation. They are due to appear before an examining judge on Saturday.
The investigation against the three MPs is part of a wider crackdown on the ultranationalist party which was triggered by the murder in September of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn supporter.
The raids come as the leader of Golden Dawn, Nikos Michaloliakos, as well as the deputy leader Christos Pappas, both arrested following Fyssas’s murder, remain imprisoned pending trial after having their requests for release denied this week.
Meanwhile further incidents are being added to the case file being assembled against Golden Dawn according to the English site of the Kathimerini newspaper. These include the murder of a 27 year old Pakistani man in January for which two men have been arrested, one of whom had Golden Dawn fliers at his home. In total it is believed that at least 12 more people will be added to the list of individuals suspected of involvement in criminal incidents perpetrated by Golden Dawn.
The MPs and the party reject the charges levelled against them. In response to today’s raids against the MPs the party responded in typical polemical fashion issuing a statement that read: ”The junta of Venizelos – Samaras has made a mockery of any sense of constitutional legality by ordering a raid by anti-terrorism police of the homes of the MPs Germenis, Boukouras and Iliopoulos. There is no evidence against Golden Dawn and they are trying with these pathetic tactics to terrorise us. The wife of MP Iliopoulos is due, give birth within days, suffered shock while without any sense of respect the junta of the memorandum kicked her out of her home. Similarly MP Germenis has a two-year old daughter and co-fighter Boukouras has three children the youngest of whom is 3 years old, who are living in a climate of the worst fear.”
Others questioned the likely effectiveness of the raids given reports (link in Greek) that police were supplied with the warrant from the prosecutor's office about a week ago but did not decide to act until today. Given that many in the police force are believed to be sympathetic to Golden Dawn it is unclear how much of a surprise the raid actually was.
Fears also remain that the case against Golden Dawn may eventually fail, bolstering the party’s claim that it is the victim of government persecution.
Support for Golden Dawn has risen dramatically in recent years and in the June 2012 elections it won its first seats in parliament gaining about 7% of the vote. Even today with court cases pending against its leadership recent polls show support for Golden Dawn ranging between 8-11%. Emboldened by its success Golden Dawn supporters have increasingly perpetrated acts of street violence and thuggish behaviour – particularly against immigrants. However it took the murder of Fyssas to prompt the government to act.
While many believe the government was too slow to act and effectively emboldened the party in by not only turning a blind eye to racist attacks against immigrants but even adopting some of the party’s rhetoric, others feared that clamping down on the party may turn them into political martyrs.
How to deal with the threat posed by Golden Dawn has divided the center-right New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras as outlined in this article in the Wall St Journal, published yesterday.
Specifically, according to the article, while Antonis Samaras is known to despise nazi sympathisers (his grandmother, the famed children’s author committed suicide the day the Nazi flag was raised over the Acropolis), he won the leadership of New Democracy largely through the support of the more right wing element of the party – supporters more likely to leave New Democracy for Golden Dawn.
A leading voice arguing against moving against was Tasos Baltakos a close adviser to Samaras and current General Secretary to the government. According to the WSJ, “He said that would backfire, winning the party sympathy from voters disgusted with the establishment and alienating conservative constituencies such as the army and church. Other aides agreed that confronting Golden Dawn was politically risky.”
Baltakos also does not appear to have been overly concerned with the beatings of immigrants at the hands of the neo-fascists. Again according to the WSJ, “A year ago, the head of a human-rights advisory body, Kostis Papaioannou, presented its annual report to a close prime ministerial adviser, Takis Baltakos. Mr. Baltakos opened it at a chapter on racist violence and threw it on the table, saying, “We are not interested in the human rights of foreigners,” according to Mr. Papaioannou. “
But when a famous Greek was stabbed through the heart one evening Samaras’s hand was forced and the order was given to crack down on Golden Dawn with prosecutors attempting to rapidly build a case based on phone calls, wiretaps, interviews with former supporters and raids targeting MPs.
However experts say that it will be difficult to prove the case that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation and many fear that if the case fails it will play into the narrative the party is trying to build, portraying themselves as the only true patriots persecuted by a treasonous government at the behest of outside imperialist forces including the EU and Israel.