'Nazi' far right lurks in dawn of new Greece
New Greek Prime Minister Antonis
Samaras, left third, with newly appointed cabinet ministers as they
leave the Presidential palace in Athens after the swearing-in yesterday.
Source: AP
GREECE regained some political
normalcy yesterday with the appointment of a new coalition government
but MPs and voters are only now coming to terms with a disturbing new
feature on their political landscape.
In the past seven weeks the far-right party Golden Dawn has entered
parliament for the first time and then, in a second election that was
called to break a coalition impasse, consolidated its position to emerge
as the most blatantly "neo-Nazi" party to enjoy such success in
post-war Europe.
In parts of central Athens, gangs of
black-shirted party members now "patrol" the streets at night and they
have been accused of almost daily attacks on the city's large population
of unregistered immigrants.
Nationalist parties are surging in
many parts of Europe on the back of economic disruption, heavy
immigration and resentment at the EU's intrusion into national affairs
but Golden Dawn is in a different category from parties such as Marine
Le Pen's National Front in France.
GREECE regained some political
normalcy yesterday with the appointment of a new coalition government
but MPs and voters are only now coming to terms with a disturbing new
feature on their political landscape.
In the past seven weeks the far-right party Golden Dawn has entered
parliament for the first time and then, in a second election that was
called to break a coalition impasse, consolidated its position to emerge
as the most blatantly "neo-Nazi" party to enjoy such success in
post-war Europe.
In parts of central Athens, gangs of
black-shirted party members now "patrol" the streets at night and they
have been accused of almost daily attacks on the city's large population
of unregistered immigrants.
Nationalist parties are surging in
many parts of Europe on the back of economic disruption, heavy
immigration and resentment at the EU's intrusion into national affairs
but Golden Dawn is in a different category from parties such as Marine
Le Pen's National Front in France.
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