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One Step Further to the Right One step further to the right Right-wing extremism in Greece and the rise of Golden Dawn Birgitta Hsiu Lan Lim Ersland Master’s thesis in Peace and Conflict Studies Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History UNIVERSITY OF OSLO 15.05.2014 II The Golden Dawn isn’t a story that began last year. The “men and women in the black shirts” were always near you, they lived among you, for many years. Some of you wouldn’t take them seriously, some of you were comforted in your bourgeois dream, but we said that our time would come, our age still hasn’t begun, because we aren’t the quiet birds of peacetime, we are birds of the storm and the hurricane. The storm came and the hurricane came and with them we came – we, the “men and women in the black shirts”. In these pages, you will read part of our story… – Golden Dawn International Newsroom, 2014. III © Birgitta Hsiu Lan Lim Ersland 2014 One step further to the right. Right-wing extremism in Greece and the rise of Golden Dawn. Birgitta Hsiu Lan Lim Ersland http://www.duo.uio.no Print: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo IV Loans make people slaves. – Menander, Greek philosopher, 341/2–290 B.C. [T]he pessimism of indignation […] Here the claim is made to judge history, to divest it of its fatality, to discover responsibility behind it, guilty men in it. For this is the rub, one needs guilty men. The underprivileged, the decadents of all kinds […] need victims […] To this end, they need an appearance of justice, […] some sort of scapegoat. This scapegoat can be God […] or the social order, or education and training, or the Jews, or the nobility, or those who have turned out well in any way. In short, the pessimism of indignation invents responsibility in order to create a pleasant feeling for itself – revenge – ‘Sweeter than honey’ old Homer called it. – Friedrich Nietzche, The Will to Power, New York: Vintage, 1967:201–2. V VI Abstract This thesis examines the rise of the extreme right party Golden Dawn in Greece. The main argument is that it is necessary to understand the developments of the modern Greek state, from independence and throughout the financial crisis, to understand that there is a general tendency in Greece to lean towards the far right in times of crisis. Recent developments in Greece should therefore not be seen as a unique phenomenon, but rather as a confirmation of the importance of nationalism, the effects of populism, and also the heritage of fascism in contemporary Greece. The first part of this thesis therefore looks at the history of Greece from 1821 to 1990 before moving on to a larger discussion on developments from the 1990s. Particular attention will be given to the period from the financial crisis of 2008 up until this day (early May 2014). This thesis also looks at the concepts of nationalism, fascism and populism, and how they are crucial both in defining the concept of the extreme right and for understanding extreme right-wing parties. Key words: fascism, Golden Dawn, Greece, nationalism, populism, right-wing extremism, the extreme right, the far right, the financial crisis. VII VIII Acknowledgments First, I would like to thank my parents, and especially my father for nourishing my interest in history at an early age. Second, my supervisor, Dag Einar Thorsen, deserves a loud applause. You have led me through this with a firm hand and have been a true inspiration. Thank you. Third, to Mari. You are my best friend and I am forever grateful for our friendship. Fourth, my dear fellow Pecosians. You know who you are. I never thought complaining about our theses could be so much fun. Thanks to Pausegjengen for providing me with enough to laugh about in the ninth floor reading room. Fifth, thanks to Dr Vemund Aarbakke at the University of Thessaloniki, and to Nina Biering Alexidis who have looked at some of the translations. Finally, thanks to the Votsala family. My time in Lesvos has been an inspiration. Thanks to Janet for making the best frappé in all of Greece. In memory of Stratis Alexidis. I never got to tell you that it was our conversation that early evening in Mytilíni that inspired me to write this thesis. I regret that we never got to know each other as well as I would have liked. Any faults or errors in this thesis are entirely my own. Thermi, Lesvos, 16.04.2014 Blindern, Oslo, 15.05.2014 Birgitta Lim Ersland IX X Abbreviations ANEL Independent Greeks (Anexártitoi Éllines) EAM National Liberation Front (Ethnikó Apeleftherotikó Métopo) EDES National Republican Hellenic League (Ethnikós Dimokratikós Ellinikós Síndesmos) ELAS Greek People’s Liberation Army (Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós) EPEK National Progressive Centre Union (Ethnikí Proodeftikí Enosis Kéntru) EPEN National Political Union (Kómma ton Proofeftikon) DIMAR Democratic Left (Dimokratikí Aristerá) KKE The Greek Communist Party (Kommunistikó Kómma Elládas) LAOS Popular Orthodox Rally (Laïkós Orthódoxos Synagermós) ND New Democracy (Neá Dimokratía) PASOK Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima) SYRIZA Coalition of the Radical Left (Synaspismós Rizospastikís Aristerás - Enotikó Koinonikó Métopo) XA Golden Dawn (Chrysí Avgí) EMU European Monetary Union EU European Union, as well as its predecessor the European Community IMF International Monetary Fund MTFS Medium Term Fiscal Strategy 2013-2016 MYPLACE Memory, Youth, Political Legacy And Civic Engagement. A collaborative large-scale project funded by the European Commission. HRW Human Rights Watch XI XII Table of contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ VII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................................... IX ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................................... XI TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... XIII 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 RESEARCH QUESTION .......................................................................................................................... 3 BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................... 4 A short introduction to the history of Greece, 1821–2014 ............................................................. 4 Golden Dawn and the situation in Greece today ........................................................................... 5 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................. 6 A historian’s perspective ................................................................................................................ 7 Research design .............................................................................................................................. 8 Bias in historical explanation ......................................................................................................... 9 Challenges regarding the use of secondary literature ................................................................. 10 THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS .............................................................................................................. 12 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: EXTREMISM FROM THE MARGINS TO THE MAINSTREAM ................................................................................................................................... 13 SUPPORTING CONCEPTS .................................................................................................................... 13 Nationalism ................................................................................................................................... 14 Fascism ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Populism ....................................................................................................................................... 24 THE EXTREME RIGHT FAMILY: THE POPULIST RADICAL RIGHT VS. THE EXTREME RIGHT ............... 26 Klaus von Beyme and the ‘familles spirituelles’ .......................................................................... 26 ‘Radicalism’, ‘extremism’ and ‘populism’ .................................................................................. 27 DEFINING THE EXTREME RIGHT ........................................................................................................ 29 3 1821–1949: SHAPING MODERN GREECE ............................................................................. 34 1821–1923: THE BUILDING OF NATION AND NATIONALITY .............................................................. 34 From independence to the First World War ................................................................................. 34 From the Treaty of Sèvres to the Greek-Turkish War .................................................................. 35 From the Treaty of Lausanne to the Second Hellenic Republic ................................................... 37 1924–1949: INSTABILITY, WAR AND MILITARY DICTATORSHIP ....................................................... 39 From
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