THE Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party will enter parliament for the first time in nearly 40 years, exit polls showed as ballots closed in an early election that could derail the country’s reforms.
The party is calculated to win between six and eight percent of the vote on rising immigration and crime concerns, comfortably above the three-percent threshold required for to enter parliament.
The group reacted jubilantly and claimed the result would translate into more than 25 deputies in the 300-seat parliament, a stunning blow to mainstream parties.
It’s likely they ran on a platform of ‘immigrants are hurting our economy’. Given that people are looking for folks to blame for Greece’s economic woes, and it’s always easier to blame other people, I can see how this would work. This was, after all, how the original Nazi party came to power. To be honest, I’m surprised I haven’t seen such things here in the US, but then I’m not really in the loop as hate speech goes.
It’s likely they ran on a platform of ‘immigrants are hurting our economy’. Given that people are looking for folks to blame for Greece’s economic woes, and it’s always easier to blame other people, I can see how this would work. This was, after all, how the original Nazi party came to power. To be honest, I’m surprised I haven’t seen such things here in the US, but then I’m not really in the loop as hate speech goes.
Oh, they do exist in the US as well. Here is a list of a few of them:
And some of the more radical parts of your Tea Party movement blend in with the above organizations (that is NOT to be taken to imply that the Tea Party movement is neo-Nazi. But at the right side of that movement, some of it backers definitely have sympathies uncomfortably close to them. And the Tea Party movement in general has issues with immigration, seeing immigrants (notably from Mexico) as a job threat to US citizens).
When an economy crashes, there is always a kind of ‘lynching’ of the current government by the majority and further scape coats are also sought out to skewer. People are not patient either, even when they intellectually know they have no other choice. Here in the United States for example, the economy had already taken a speedy rocket-infused nose-dive into the depths of a very deep ocean when Bush was still in office. Everyone knew and understood that when Obama took office the speed of that fueled rocket was not one that could be easily slowed or aborted. BUT, in the first weeks to just 3 months into Obama’s presidency, unrest and anger that he could not stop the dive was clearly shouted around the globe. Each time a new president here is elected he is seen as the hopeful savior.
The United States was founded by immigrants so we are more accepting of new immigrants coming in even while it is clear we need better monitoring. In Europe there was not such a flux at first, especially into Spain and Greece (even while immigration has always been part of Europe’s life) as has been seen here.
When economies fail so profusely, people want totally new leadership, and especially ones who say they will attack and remove anything or anyone viewed as a culprit or who has contributed to that downfall beyond the native ‘citizen’. It’s a response a cry for a kind of Guerrilla warfare.
Oh, I wasn’t saying there weren’t any such groups in the US, or that I wasn’t aware of them. I was saying that there wasn’t nearly the vocal blaming of immigrants/blacks/jews/people wearing hats like you would normally see.
I mean, before the mortgage crisis turned the economy into goo, people were upset about immigrants stealing US jobs, especially mexicans. Now that jobs are scarce, much less so. I think there may have been an understanding of exactly who was to blame, combined with having a black president meant such groups could simply blame him - being racist without actually appearing to be so.
When I look at this news from Greece, add the fact that the Front National got 20% of the votes in the preliminaries of the French presidentiary elections, and the popularity of the fundamentally undemocratic Wilders movement (PVV) in my own country, I sometimes worry. Should I perhaps keep a boat to England ready on the beach?
Two days ago, on May 5th, we Dutch celebrated “Bevrijdingsdag” (Liberation day), commemorating the end of the Nazi occupation of our country. But what is there to celebrate when the Nazi’s are BACK on the political scene?
Two days ago, on May 5th, we Dutch celebrated “Bevrijdingsdag” (Liberation day), commemorating the end of the Nazi occupation of our country. But what is there to celebrate when the Nazi’s are BACK on the political scene?
Those of us with sense will just have to be sure to fight them off again. Hopefully without the whole “leaving Europe in smoking ruins” part of it this time.
Fascism works in a very predictable fashion. Key to its “success” is the idea of the other. As long as the fascists have a group to point fingers at, they keep their appeal. Take this away and they cannot maintain the twisted logic which keeps them in power. Take the Reichstag fire. Nazis burn the place, blame leftists, and take all the power. Absolutely ruthless, absolutely morally bankrupt.
Take the Reichstag fire. Nazis burn the place, blame leftists, and take all the power. Absolutely ruthless, absolutely morally bankrupt.
Eh, I think it more likely that one crazy guy who happened to be a Communist burned down the building, then the Nazis took advantage of a fortuitous (to them) and unexpected event by declaring it to be the work of a full-scale conspiracy. But that’s a totally different topic, and the general idea remains the same. Extremist governments, whether fascist or other, tend to appear in times of extreme discontent. When people are happy, they tend to be passive. When they are uncomfortable, they tend to get more energetic when expressing their discomfort. Extremists take advantage of the situation and manipulate that energy, blaming all of the problems on the group currently in power (or the group that the extremists claim is secretly in power, such as Commies or Jews or whomever) and then distancing themselves as much as possible from that group and its values.
it was obvious that something like that would happen in greece. with the great recession all over europe the extremists are becoming increasingly popular. something we already know from history and which could become dangerous. our politicians shouldn’t ignore that.
