Domestic Extremism in Europe - Athena Institute
Domestic Extremism in Europe - Athena Institute
Domestic Extremism in Europe - Athena Institute
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
ga<strong>in</strong> them popularity they will run with them. So, when<br />
extremist groups conduct successful securitizations on a<br />
large level aga<strong>in</strong>st certa<strong>in</strong> communities with<strong>in</strong> a society,<br />
they also push ma<strong>in</strong>stream politicians towards the far-<br />
right or the far-left.<br />
Probably the best example comes from Greece, a country<br />
ridden with political and economic crisis. Both far-left<br />
and far-right movements, extremists and parties are ga<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g<br />
ground with Golden Dawn (GD) amongst them.<br />
Golden Dawn had used to be a t<strong>in</strong>y party on the fr<strong>in</strong>ges<br />
with no real electorate support whatsoever. The political<br />
and economic crises changed that however and right<br />
now GD is the 5th biggest party <strong>in</strong> the Greek Parliament.<br />
It is also very likely that they will become the 3rd biggest<br />
after the next general elections (CIA, 2012).<br />
GD is a deeply racist, xenophobic and anti-immigrant<br />
party. Their policy’s ma<strong>in</strong> focus is on push<strong>in</strong>g out both<br />
legal and illegal immigrants from the country at any costs<br />
and they have no real scruples when it comes to the<br />
methods they are will<strong>in</strong>g to use. They organize neigh-<br />
borhood watches that challenge the monopoly of the<br />
state to use violence and regularly <strong>in</strong>timidate immi-<br />
grants. For <strong>in</strong>stance, they harass immigrant shopkeepers<br />
and vendors by go<strong>in</strong>g to marketplaces and act as authori-<br />
<strong>Domestic</strong> <strong>Extremism</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Europe</strong> - Threat Landscape 46