Greece’s two general elections in 2023 showed the strength of the far right — but also how this political camp has transformed during the COVID-19 pandemic. One reason is that today it has many representatives within the ruling party: New Democracy, the conservative outfit that won a majority of seats in the second election held on June 25. Yet in that same contest, over 12 percent of votes went to far-right alternatives, with two tickets — Niki (Victory) and the Spartans — entering parliament for the first time.

This is not because the far right is a new force in Greek politics. Still, this political space has many different faces, and various developments over the last decade pushed it toward an internal restructuring. Factions of the antisystemic far right had been integrated into government already in 2015, when the Independent Greeks (ANEL) were included in the coalition led by Syriza. More recent years also saw the decline of the more overtly neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, which was banned in 2020.

Three years ago, the court ruling against Golden Dawn — judged a criminal organization, with some of its leaders jailed — was hailed by some liberals as a decisive blow against the far right. Yet the period since then has shown that this was far from true. Even without this party, new strains of the far right appeared during the pandemic, and today they play a key role on several fronts: within the governing bloc, in street mobilizations, and in other rising electoral forces. The Spartans gained momentum in short order ahead of June’s elections, after Golden Dawn’s second-in-command Elias Kasidiaris offered this newer party a public statement of support from jail.