Greece’s Neo-Nazis Are Back
In 2020, Greek courts condemned neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn as a criminal organization. After six years in jail, its former deputy leader Ilias Kasidiaris is making a political comeback, in conditions that favor his party’s rise.
A court ruling in 2020 led to the jailing of most of Golden Dawn’s leadership. But Greece’s neo-Nazi subculture never went away — and with leading cadre Ilias Kasidiaris’s release from jail, a new far-right party is taking form. (Aris Messinis / AFP via Getty Images)
For over seven years after it entered parliament in May 2012, Golden Dawn was at the heart of Greece’s political life. Its rise was accompanied by scenes that should have made its character unmistakable. During the June 2012 election campaign, MP Ilias Kasidiaris assaulted two female left-wing politicians live on TV, while numerous other key members were documented openly expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Beyond parliament, something far darker was taking place. Golden Dawn was not simply an extremist political party but, a Greek court would later establish, a criminal organization orchestrating a web of violence. Its notorious assault squads terrorized migrants and political opponents across Athens, and its members were implicated in some of the most infamous killings of the period, including the murders of antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas and Pakistani migrant worker Shahzad Luqman.
The judicial crackdown that followed in September 2013 led to one of the most consequential political trials in modern Greek history. Beginning in April 2015, the proceedings dragged on for more than five years before, in October 2020, Golden Dawn was found to have operated as a criminal organization. Most of its senior leadership received prison sentences of around thirteen years.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.