SOCIETY

GD withdraws to the shadows in Keratsini

“Golden Dawn is no longer cool in Keratsini and the broader area,” said Costas, a young man who experienced the events that followed the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a supporter of Greece’s neo-Nazi party in the neighborhood a year ago. “Sure, there are still supporters of Golden Dawn around, as the last election results showed. But they no longer voice their ideas out in the open. They now move under the surface. Most importantly, their sense of complacency and impunity is gone,” he added.

The mood has changed at schools as well. “Before Fyssas was murdered, you could see pro-GD students openly and rather aggressively advertising their choice,” he said.

“In spring 2013, a group of students attacked some migrants near our school,” a teacher told Kathimerini. “Things have changed radically since Fyssas was killed. Students were shocked by the incident. Many of them now describe themselves as anti-fascists and take part in events,” he added.

“Now schools host various types of anti-fascist activities. Students have staged a number of political plays, such as Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Fear and Misery of the Third Reich’ and Stratiev Stanislav’s ‘The Suede Jacket,’” said Stella Michaloglou, a teacher and municipal councelor in the Keratsini-Drapetsona district of Piraeus. “Fyssas’s killing left the area in shock and fed opposition to Golden Dawn. However, there are still people who are afraid of being targeted by the organization,” she told Kathimerini.

“Last year we painted anti-fascist slogans and a big ‘Killah P’ for Pavlos. Many kids had known [Fyssas] and knew that he kept away from trouble,” said Ilias, a student at a Keratsini school.

Golden Dawn raised its ugly head again in Keratsini this last January, when a hit squad vandalized the site where Fyssas was murdered before raiding Resalto, an anarchist hangout. There was no reaction from the police. A small number of people from Keratsini took part in the assault with their faces covered. But that was the organization’s last appearance in public.

In the regional elections, a surrogate party set up by Golden Dawn called National Dawn filed no candidate for the municipality. Several former supporters of GD took part in municipal elections on other tickets but denied having any links to Golden Dawn.

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