Greece Arrests Senior Members of Far-Right Party
ATHENS — The counterterrorism police conducted a crackdown on Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn party early Saturday morning, arresting 5 members of Parliament, including the leader of the organization, and 10 party officials. A search was under way for another lawmaker and more than 20 party members.
Less than two weeks after a man who said he had ties to the party allegedly murdered an anti-fascist Greek musician, igniting an uproar throughout Greece, Nikos Michaloliakos, Golden Dawn’s leader and a member of Parliament, was taken into custody Saturday morning on charges of forming a criminal organization. The other arrests followed.
Golden Dawn is by no means a new force in Greece, but its influence has grown in tandem with the country’s devastating economic hardship. Offering promises to restore jobs and order, the party’s members also espouse nationalistic and xenophobic stances, appealing to marginalized Greeks in rough areas populated by a rising number of unemployed immigrants, mostly from Pakistan and North Africa.
Human rights groups say Golden Dawn, whose members perform Nazi salutes at rallies and meetings, has systematically terrorized immigrants, while the police have looked the other way. The aggressive acts include the beating of immigrants with clubs and shields bearing swastikalike symbols, or with wooden poles draped in the Greek flag.
The arrests are part of a rapidly widening campaign by the government to clamp down on what it says is a rising tide of extremism in Greece, fueled by the economic crisis. In addition, the government opened an investigation last week into whether sympathizers or members of the group — one of the most violent rightist organizations in Europe — had infiltrated Greek police forces and the armed forces.
The government replaced seven senior police officials to ensure that the investigation would take place with “absolute objectivity.”
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who leads the right-leaning New Democracy Party, has said he is determined to curb the influence of Golden Dawn, a group whose standing climbed in opinion polls in the last year and which now has 18 of its members in Parliament.
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