The Wall Street Journal
Greece Struggles to Outlaw Its Golden Dawn Fascist Party
Conservative Government Mounts Risky Effort to Declare Group a Criminal Organization
Updated Dec. 4, 2013 11:37 p.m. ET
PIRAEUS, Greece—At a dark crossroads
here in September, Greek police kept a safe distance while black-clad
activists from the fascist movement Golden Dawn chased and attacked
Pavlos Fyssas,
a 34-year-old rapper.
The police
had long been in the habit of standing by while Golden Dawn's
paramilitary squads rolled into action, mirroring the hesitance of
Greece's political leadership to deal with the growing movement's
muscle. Only after a Golden Dawn member fatally stabbed the rapper did
police officers make an arrest, according to 15 police and witness
depositions.
The arrest was the start of
a risky crackdown on a party steeped in street violence and neo-Nazi
rhetoric, whose surging support since last year symbolizes how Europe's
economic crisis has fueled the Continent's most radical forces. From
Spain to Finland, extremes of left and right, regional separatists and
antiestablishment populists are on the march. Golden Dawn, once a fringe
group known for stiff-arm salutes and Holocaust denial, rose to nearly
15% support in opinion polls by this fall.
Violence in Greece hasn't come only
from the far right. On Nov. 1, two men on a stolen motorcycle stopped at
a Golden Dawn branch in an Athens suburb and shot two party activists
dead. An extreme-left group took responsibility, saying it was revenge
for the killing of Mr. Fyssas.....
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303281504579219983801909944
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