Greece Turns against Democracy
Whatever you think of Golden Dawn’s personnel, policies, and optics, the latest news from Greece is not good for democracy:
ATHENS — In a landmark verdict in Greece’s highest-profile political trial in decades, an Athens court on Wednesday found the neo-fascist party Golden Dawn guilty of running a criminal organization as it rose to prominence during the country’s financial crisis, systematically targeting migrants and left-wing critics. The ruling came more than five years after the trial began in a makeshift courtroom in Greece’s largest high-security prison near Athens, and as at the beginning of the trial, none of the party officials were in the courtroom where the verdict was announced.
But thousands of Greek citizens had gathered outside the court on Wednesday, waving banners reading, “They are not innocent,” “Nazis out” and “Life terms to the murderers,” as some 2,000 police officers patrolled the area and helicopters and drones circled above.
The three-judge criminal court tied the party to a string of attacks including the fatal stabbing in 2013 of a left-wing rapper, Pavlos Fyssas. The party member who stabbed Mr. Fyssas, Giorgos Roupakias, was found guilty of murder on Wednesday.
Another five Golden Dawn supporters or members were found guilty of attempted murder over assaults on three Egyptian fishermen in 2012, while four were found guilty of causing bodily harm over assaults on members of Greece’s Communist Party trade union in 2013.
Golden Dawn’s case is that the party had no direct link to the attacks and that the charges and trial are “politically motivated.”
Yes, some Golden Dawn members were involved in violent incidents. That is undeniable. But this did not occur in a vacuum. Golden Dawn was constantly subjected to violent attacks by antifa and extreme leftists, who were noticeably absent from the trial for their crimes, including this “unsolved” attack mentioned at Wikipedia:
On 1 November 2013, two men approached the party headquarters in Neo Irakleio, a northern suburb of Athens, and fired indiscriminately. Golden Dawn members Giorgos Fountoulis and Manos Kapelonis were struck and killed, and a third man, Alexandros Gerontas, was seriously injured. A witness reported that a man got off a motorcycle, wearing a helmet, and fired. Police described the shooting as a “terrorist attack”.
Despite constant vilification by the media, the party scored nearly 10% of the vote a few years back. This popularity was based on the party’s championing of working-class Whites hit hardest by Greece’s Neo-liberal and open borders approach. Golden Dawn activists also attempted to protect Greek citizens from ruthless immigrant gangs. This too could only lead to violence.
Greece’s establishment parties, through economic mismanagement and by allowing in hordes of migrants against the will of the Greek people, should be held responsible for creating these violent conditions.
As for Greece’s Leftist parties, these have been deeply involved in violent rioting for decades, with, of course, people dying.
In 2010 a Leftist “anti-austerity” demonstration saw a mob attack a branch of the Marfin Bank in Athens with Molotov cocktails. Witnesses said that protesters marching past the bank ignored the employees’ cries for help, while others just chanted anti-capitalist slogans. Two employees who jumped from the second-story balcony were badly injured and two women and a man were later found dead after the fire was extinguished. The demonstrators, of course, prevented the fire crews from reaching the building.
At the time Michalis Chrysohoidis, the Socialist Minister for Citizen Protection, declared:
Today is a black day for democracy. … Undemocratic forces have [latched on to] a peaceful demonstration of workers and now petrol bombs have killed three of our citizens and put an immediate danger to the lives of others.
Yes, quite! Even though several well-known Left-wing parties participated in the demonstration and riot that led to the fire, no parties were banned and nobody was arrested or punished. Oh wait, a correction — in 2013 three people were convicted. Three staff members of the bank — yes the bank!!! These unfortunates were sentenced for “failing to take adequate measures to protect their staff.” Isn’t this sometimes called victim blaming?
By considering the background of Greece’s largely Leftist-driven violence and the obvious double standard employed by the legal authorities against Golden Dawn, it is clear that what we are witnessing with this criminalisation of a political party is an anti-democratic move by the oligarchical Greek establishment to remove a political choice whose message resonates with large parts of the public, and which would be a threat to the main parties if a level democratic playing field was provided.
“Today is an important day for democracy,” the country’s president, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, said. “Today’s decision is a confirmation of the fact that democracy and its institutions are always capable of fending off any attempt to undermine them.”
Yes, how “democratic” to ban a party for patently anti-democratic reasons. This is a perfect example of Orwellian double speak. But who would have thought it would be taking place in Greece, the cradle of Western democracy?
The parallels with the situation in the U.S. are obvious. Prosecutors in cities like Portland and Seattle are refusing to prosecute leftist rioters, resulting in months of assaults on police, destruction of property, and one murder of a counter-protester. Leftists engaged in violent assaults on the Charlottesville demonstrators have never been prosecuted, while some of those involved in the Charlottesville march are in prison while others are facing civil suits
But who would have thought it would be taking place in Greece, the cradle of Western democracy?
Democracy was, then as now, just a phase, lasting for a few decades. Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 BC. Democracy had then reached much the same stage of decadence as in the “Western” countries these days. Democracy itself, one may suspect, was in itself a sign of decadence,
The most important Old Comic dramatist is Aristophanes. Born in 446 BC, his works, with their pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo, effectively define the genre today. Aristophanes lampooned the most important personalities and institutions of his day, as can be seen, for example, in his buffoonish portrayal of Socrates in The Clouds, and in his racy anti-war farce Lysistrata. He was one of a large number of comic poets working in Athens in the late 5th century, his most important contemporary rivals being Hermippus and Eupolis.The Old Comedy subsequently influenced later European writers such as Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, and Voltaire. In particular, they copied the technique of disguising a political attack as buffoonery.
And as in modern times the phase of “serious” comedy did not last long:
The line between Old and Middle Comedy is not clearly marked chronologically, Aristophanes and others of the latest writers of the Old Comedy being sometimes regarded as the earliest Middle Comic poets. For ancient scholars, the term may have meant little more than “later than Aristophanes and his contemporaries, but earlier than Menander”. Middle Comedy is generally seen as differing from Old Comedy in three essential particulars: the role of the chorus was diminished to the point where it had no influence on the plot; public characters were not impersonated or personified onstage; and the objects of ridicule were general rather than personal, literary rather than political. Stock characters of all sorts also emerge: courtesans, parasites, revellers, philosophers, boastful soldiers, and especially the conceited cook with his parade of culinary science.
New Comedy followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending about 260 BC. It is comparable to situation comedy and comedy of manners. The three best-known playwrights belonging to this genre are Menander, Philemon and Diphilus.The playwrights of the New Comedy genre built on the legacy from their predecessors, but adapted it to the portrayal of everyday life, rather than of public affairs. The satirical and farcical element which featured so strongly in Aristophanes’ comedies was increasingly abandoned, the de-emphasis of the grotesque – whether in the form of choruses, humour or spectacle – opening the way for greater representation of daily life and the foibles of recognisable character types.
Thank you. This was enjoyed. As a child one enjoyed reading about Greece. In Europe, after the commie revolution in Greece, there was a Greek-Polonian population. Many of that community were interesting and one became a popular singer. One of my grandchildren speaks Polish, understands plenty of Russian, took lessons the Greek language (for 3 yrs.) and, like most others, learns Spanish in the American school system. We hope you continue to contribute to TOO.
We immensely enjoyed your tying in the American revolution with what’s going on in Greece. Most individuals have no idea the democracy is a farce. The same thing goes for litigation. Once again, thank you.
Democracy in Greece during the modern times is a joke. Greece is a permanent protectorate, an english one from 1830-1949 and an american one until today!
Why would we be surprised by these events? From the very moment you speak in defence of your own people against the System/Establishment, you are guilty. And may the gods help you if you dared to mention “The Chosen People”!
What it bothers/annoys me is this crying over “democracy being trampled on”. What did you expect? There are two sets of rules, one for us and another for our enemies. In our case, we shall ALWAYS lose. That is the price we have to pay for living in “democracy”, that means a state of semi-anarchy at the mercy of murderous gangs like BLM or “Antifa”. Democracy is just another word for “mob rule” and “white genocide”.
I am very sorry for the noble Greek patriots of “Golden Dawn” but it was inevitable. This also shows that the majority of Greeks, like most Whites everywhere, are crap. A handful of patriots showed them the way out of poverty and degradation and they refused to listen to them. Now they are being lynched by the system and there is nobody on the streets. No sympathy, no support.
Most Greeks/Whites deserve everything they get.
busted?
http://stateofthenation.co/?p=31424
Democracy is the problem. It’s an oligarchy that favors it’s supporters, amplifying their voices while silencing the opposition. It gives the populace the illusion of power. It doesn’t matter if the chosen group is the minority or the majority, as long as the oligarchy approves, thy will be done.
What you are seeing here in Greece, is democracy.