By Mark Lowen
BBC News, Athens
A fortnight ago,
Golden Dawn was feeling smug. Greece's neo-Nazi party was riding high in the
opinion polls at about 15%, double what it got in last year's election.
Its support was soaring among a nation buckling under its worst financial crisis in living memory. It had opened new offices, lectures it hosted presenting the party's view of Greek history were proving popular, its 18 MPs appeared untouchable.
But Pavlos Fyssas changed all that. A
left-wing hip hop musician and activist, he had spent the evening watching
football on TV in a bar near Athens. As he left, he was set upon by a group.
The man arrested for stabbing him to death confessed to being an active
supporter of Golden Dawn.
The murder prompted a national outcry. Tens
of thousands took to the streets, demanding that the violent neo-Nazis be
reined in. And then, in a weekend morning raid, the government sprang into
action. Some 22 members were arrested, six of them MPs, including the party
leader Nikos Michaloliakos. They were charged with belonging to a criminal
group, with counts including murder, assault and money-laundering.
'Offer
of violence'
Police say they found evidence linking the
killer of Pavlos Fyssas to the Golden Dawn leadership. In the homes of MPs
arrested, they said they uncovered photos of Adolf Hitler and swastika flags.
Witness testimony told of a "Fuehrer-like" party structure,
commanding hit squads that drove through Athens attacking migrants.
Whistleblowers are now under police
protection. But we traced a former supporter who offered us a rare insight into
how the party functions. She attended Golden Dawn meetings looking for support,
after being harassed by a man. "Inside, I saw clubs and shields," she
tells me. "Everyone stood to attention when the leader came in. They
talked of beating up gay and dark-skinned people."
She lights a cigarette and holds back the tears. "A party member came to visit me," she says. "He made me an offer: he could break someone's arm and leg for 300 euros [£250]. Set a car on fire for 1,000 euros. Put someone in hospital for a month for 1,500 euros. "I didn't want any of it, so I broke off communication. Later he came back and told us not to say a word or he'd burn us alive." Police collusion?
So why, when the party's vigilante nature
was well known, did the authorities not act sooner? Greece's Racist Violence
Reporting Network found that in 2012, there were 154 cases of racist attacks
and, so far this year, 104. Two immigrants were murdered. Almost every incident
is attributed to Golden Dawn.
One theory for the failure to act against
this is the alleged collusion of the police. In last year's election, figures
from some areas of Athens suggested that one in every two police officers voted
for Golden Dawn. Several high-ranking members of the force have been suspended
in the recent clampdown on the party, with others resigning.
Footage filmed by the website info-war.gr
showed men in plain clothes standing close to riot squads policing an
anti-fascist demonstration two weeks ago, hurling rocks at the left-wing
activists. At least one of the men has been identified as a Golden Dawn member.
Amateur video from info-war.gr shows alleged Golden Dawn sympathizers clashing
with left wing protesters in Athens.
We met a Pakistani immigrant stabbed three
times by suspected Golden Dawn supporters. A year on, the scars are still there
- one just millimeters from his heart. On his stomach is a lump of scar tissue
from the second wound, which has never healed. But, he says, the police did
nothing, launching no investigation and never contacting him beyond a first
conversation. "It's because I'm a foreigner", he says. "The
police never act with us. If it were a Greek who got stabbed, they'd hunt the
aggressor immediately. Now I'm terrified to go outside.
"I
want to leave Greece for somewhere safer, like England."
A Pakistani immigrant in Greece shows a scar
following a stabbing by suspected Golden Dawn supporters A Pakistani immigrant
survived being stabbed close to his heart. But the government has defended
itself against charges of dragging its feet. The Minister for Public Order,
Nikos Dendias, says the murder of Pavlos Fyssas was the first time that a clear
chain of command could be drawn to the highest echelons of Golden Dawn.
"Any citizen or head of a political
party could report Golden Dawn to the supreme court to have it classified as a
criminal organisation," he tells me. "The fact that nobody did until
now shows there was not enough proof." I put it to him that he had
appeased Golden Dawn for the last year so as to push through the government's
crackdown on illegal immigration. And that it had taken the killing of a white
Greek citizen for authorities to spring into action.
"I totally reject that," he says.
"Criminal files have been opened in all the cases until now. But to claim
that a criminal organisation was created, you have to have very clear evidence.
When that came, we acted. And we took a huge political risk." Beginning of
end?
It is a risk that appears to be paying off. For the first time since the election, Golden Dawn has dropped significantly in the opinion polls - down to about 6%. Daily revelations about weapons found in suspects' homes should, the government hopes, turn the public mood against the party.
But its acting spokesman, Artemios
Mathaiopoulos, remains defiant. "We are a political movement that has no
relation to crime", he tells me outside police headquarters. "We have
no involvement in the killing of Pavlos Fyssas." I put it to him that
police found Golden Dawn clothing and other items in the assailant's home. "You
can buy a T-shirt for 10 euros and you can stab anyone you like. So does it
mean Golden Dawn is responsible for your actions?" Is this the beginning
of the end of his party, I ask? "It's the beginning of the end of the
government", he proudly replies.
But
Greece's neo-Nazi party is in chaos. Decapitated of its leadership, on the back
foot and facing a barrage of damaging disclosures, it is hard to see Golden
Dawn being able to fight back. That said, it still has a significant support
base among Greeks exhausted by the financial crisis, revolted by the political
mainstream and seeing salvation in ultra-nationalism. The government can crush
the party structure, but removing its ideology and bringing its supporters back
from the extreme will be the real challenge.
