Report maps activity of extreme right
Far-right extremist activity has been curtailed following the arrests of members of Combat 18 and the Non-Aligned Maeandrist Nationalists (AME), and the conviction of Golden Dawn’s leadership, according to a classified report prepared by Greece’s anti-terrorism service.
It said that following these arrests for attacks on anarchists’ hangouts, “far-right extremist activity has been limited.”
Anti-terrorism analysts did however note an increase in far-right organizations but stressed that far-right extremist activity is limited to slogan writing, distribution of leaflets, and organization of rallies.
The report is titled “The Presence of the Far-Right in Greece” and among its many conclusions is that there is no active terrorist organization in Greece.
It is dated to January 18 and was presented to Citizens’ Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos, in view of the government’s initiative to exclude the party of former senior Golden Dawn member Ilias Kasidiaris from the upcoming elections.
The report also noted nonetheless that the economic crisis, migration and the pandemic have led to the spread of far-right ideology, with Kasidiaris’ National Hellenes Party seeking to become the sole spokesman for the far-right, nationalist space.
Moreover, the conviction of Golden Dawn led to a fragmentation of the far-right, while the Russia-Ukraine war was a cause for further division. Commemorations, such as the 27th anniversary of the Imia crisis, and the mobilizations, until recently, of the anti-vaccination movement serve to “spread their positions and keep them in the limelight in the runup to national elections.”
For Golden Dawn, the report noted a decline in opinion polls and limited mobilization of its members as a consequence of the leadership’s conviction. There is also reference to a decline in supporter morale as a result of the serious illness of the party’s leader Nikos Michaloliakos from Covid-19 and his long stay in a rehabilitation center.
Five autonomous far-right groups were also listed in the report.
