Have you guys seen the Greek Far-Right 'Golden Dawn' Party logo?!

[FarLeftFist]

Greek election polls are trickling in and one disturbing result is this: The Neo-Nazi 'Golden Dawn' party, whose logo is practically a swastika is likely going to get enough votes to win a few seats in parliament. Nothing is quite confirmed yet, but that's what exit polls show now.

They'll be tiny, but it's still a shock.

And furthermore, the relationship between depression, unemployment, and Nazis repeats again, as this famous chart from SocGen's Dylan Grice confirms.




UPDATE: It's official. The Neo-Nazi party will take about 22 seats.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/neo-nazi-golden-dawn-party-to-garner-seats-in-the-greek-parliament-2012-5#ixzz1uCbTW6fT


So Greece is now being run by Nazi's and Communists who, if I remember correctly, are arch-enemies. This should be interesting.

[katsy]

1. No. Greece is NOT being run by nazis.

http://news.yahoo.com/angry-greek-voters-punish-leaders-over-austerity-ballot-093803784.html

Golden Dawn received 7% of the vote. 7 out of 100. They are racists first and foremost.

[cali]

3. sorry, that doesn't tell the whole story

first of all, in the last election, Golden Dawn won under 1% of the vote and secondly, it wasn't the only far right party to do relatively well- and no party got over over 17%

[katsy]

6. That particular group is offensive.

Sorry. I understand and agree with your statement. But I disagree that the the Greek people, as a majority, have aligned themselves with neo nazis as stated in the op.

[FarLeftFist]

5. Hitler lost a couple of elections as well. He took control through force.

[white_wolf]

7. No, he didn't.

His attempt to take power by force ended with him in prison. His eventual rise to power was fully legal. He wanted to do a "march on Rome" like Mussolini did, but as I said he ended up in prison instead.

[FarLeftFist]

19. No, his rise to power came about through violence of his delegates to his opposition.

The Nazi delegates, recognized by their brown uniforms, acted more like bullies than legislators, and debates with opposing delegates usually turned into brawls. Meanwhile, the nation's political conflict poured into the streets as Nazi storm troopers engaged Communist paramilitary fighters in almost nightly battles. While his party was elected their tactics were anything but "legal", he abolished the office of president and with the cry “One race, one realm, one leader!” proclaimed himself der Führer — the Leader.

[katsy]

8. Point taken.

I find this vile group offensive in the extreme. My uncle, a soldier in Greece in WWII, was beheaded by nazis. My father fought them there.

I cannot believe the people of Greece would sign on to their agenda.

Okay. I can smell my own denial now.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. No he did not

he was ASKED to take the reigns of power by a power elite who thought they could control him. His power at Parliament was all but impressive when he was ASKED to do this.

I am serious, this is so basic history, I am amazed how many times people go into "Hitler took power by force," when his rise was very legal, and peaceful.

[bemildred]

15. +1. nt

[white_wolf]

17. Yeah and as I mentioned above...

his attempt to take power by force was an utter failure. Sadly, he learned from that lesson and went about winning elections.

[TheWraith]

27. It was in no way either "legal" or "peaceful."

That's a complete misrepresentation: the actual myth is the one which says that Hitler was elected. He wasn't, and the one round of elections that gave the Nazis a majority in the Reichstag was heavily rigged, with beatings and killings of political opponents, bans on opposition parties from participating, and generally forcing the election to come out the way they wanted through brute force thuggery.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Did I say he was elected?

He was, to the Parliament.

He was asked to serve as chancellor by Hindenburg, thinking they could control him.

This is as basic as history as there is.

What happened later is what you are thinking, and it was not quite legal or peaceful.

[sarisataka]

29. How much people forget

The Nazis were elected as the largest party in the Reichstag with 37% of the vote. Yes there was violence at the polls and intimidation but it would be easier to name the parties that did not use such tactics...

As every other government fell due to political bickering the center-left consensus was to let the Nazis be embarrassed with the same fate.

{1932} Dwarfed by Hitler's electoral gains, the KPD turned away from legal means and increasingly towards violence. One resulting battle in Silesia resulted in the army being dispatched, each shot sending Germany further into a potential all-out civil war. By this time both sides marched into each other's strongholds hoping to spark rivalry. Hermann Göring, as speaker of the Reichstag, asked the Papen government to prosecute shooters. Laws were then passed which made political violence a capital crime.

The attacks continued, and reached fever pitch when SA storm leader Axel Schaffeld was assassinated. At the end of July, the Nazi party gained almost 14,000,000 votes, securing 230 seats in the Reichstag. Energised by the incredible results, Hitler asked to be made Chancellor. Papen offered the position of Vice Chancellor but Hitler refused.
*snip*
The Nazi party lost 35 seats in the November 1932 election but remained the Reichstag's largest party. The most shocking move of the early election campaign was to send the SA to support a Rotfront action against the transport agency and in support of a strike.

After Chancellor Papen left office, he secretly told Hitler that he still held considerable sway with President Hindenburg and that he would make Hitler chancellor as long as he, Papen, could be the vice chancellor. On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of a coalition government of the NSDAP-DNVP Party. The SA and SS led torchlight parades throughout Berlin. In the coalition government, three members of the cabinet were Nazis: Hitler, Wilhelm Frick (Minister of the Interior) and Hermann Göring (Minister Without Portfolio).

There is a 'forgotten' quote made by Papen to his party about backing Hitler- "Now we have him right where we want him"

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Yup

And hitter himself was elected to the Reichstag.

[cali]

30. It actually was legal- and his becoming Chancellor was

peaceful. von Papen and other powerful pols and influential people lobbied von Hindenburg to appoint him. It didn't take long for that to change of course. The Reichstag fire occurred only a month or so after Hitler was sworn in.

[tkmorris]

2. A question for you

Does this party claim the title "neo-nazis" for themselves or is it others that call them thus?

Another: What does "practically a swastika" mean anyway? Is it intended to look like a swastika by those who designed it, or not?

[bluedigger]

4. You don't need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!

[jberryhill]

11. It is an ancient Greek motif

[jberryhill]

9. It's a meandros

Beliefs aside, that is a classic Greek motif:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meander_%28art%29



I don't think the Greek pizza shops are embedding a hidden message in their coffee cups.

[-..__...]

33. That may be, but...

they could have chosen a color scheme other than red, white and black.

[jberryhill]

34. That is true also

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Arch enemies yes

but the Neo Nazis are a tiny minority in Parliament, hope they stay that way.

And this is what happens, predictably like the sun rises in the East, with really dramatically bad economic times.

Why the GOP is playing with real fire here.

Oh and fyi, like the Swastika, that motif goes back a few thousand years.

[FarLeftFist]

20. Again, a small minority is how Hitler eventually rose to power.

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. Why the economy needs to improve

And he rose legally after Hindenburg asked him...to serve as Chancellor. I have my doubts they would have otherwise.

You believe Greek elites will ask these guys? That is a very serios question, by the way.

[FarLeftFist]

24. Papen asked Hitler to be vice-chancellor. Hitler refused, demanding chancellorship.

Hindenburg died and Hitler abolished the Presidency. He and his followers were brutally eliminating all who might oppose him politically and making friends with the rich industrialists whose support Hitler desperately needed.

As to your question, it seems that the conservatives in Greek Govt have already lost any hope of forming a coalition. Now the Leftists have 3 days to form one. Then it's the Nazi's turn. It's almost like WW2 scenario all over again.

[Initech]

13. Neo Nazis? Really?

[EC]

14. That's a

Greek Key pattern.

[Erose999]

16. As I understand it, in Greek parliament, the parties that get the most seats get some bonus seats.

So the mainstream parties will probably get some extra seats that will ensure they retain control.

[Behind the Aegis]

18. It looks like a Hellenized swastika.

It is based on a very traditional Greek design, but the choice of colors is very telling. A black symbol, outlined with white on a field of red...yeah, I get the picture, especially given the party self-identifies as a neo-Nazi party. I doubt "Seig Heil!" will sound any better in Greek.

As for the "arch-enemy" thing, remember three words, "Hitler and Stalin." It is true Hitler betrayed Stalin, but there was and, even today, are common enemies to both parties, the biggest ones are immigrants and Jews. ""Jews" bringing political hatemongers together for centuries!"

[cynatnite]

21. They took 19 seats out of 300...

It's hardly a takeover of the government. Having said that, I do hope the people of Greece keeps this party in check. They are still dangerous, IMO.

[BOG PERSON]

23. Greece's Golden Dawn Party a scary development for Europe

The vast majority of Greeks are probably not very happy to have witnessed the Golden Dawn party take as much of the Greek electorate as they did this weekend. But it happened.

No sense in pretending it didn't.

The irony is that while Golden Dawn is considered a hard-right, fascist party (as most Neo-Nazi movements are), the economic policies of the original Nazis were as far-left as anything imaginable in this day and age. TIME Magazine named Adolf Hitler their 1934 Man of the Year and a big part of their profile centered on the anti-capitalism of the Nazi party:

"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany's bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism."

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Reformed-Broker/2012/0507/Greece-s-Golden-Dawn-Party-a-scary-development-for-Europe

[FarCenter]

25. It looks more like a part of a Greek border decoration than a swastika

If you make copies of the figure and then lay them side-by-side so that the vertical bars overlap, you get a common Greek border motif.

See http://www.buffaloah.com/a/DCTNRY/f/fret.html

[4th law of robotics]

26. I hope they've updated their racial theories

I can't imagine there are a lot of aryan supermen among these swarthy mediterraneans.

[trof]

32. And...it's a maze with no solution.

No way out.
Hmmmm.....

[Prometheus Bound]

35. So far they've attacked "Muslims, immigrants, homosexuals and foreign workers..."

...but not the Jewish people"

The leader of the other far-right party, LAOS, goes a step further:

"In 2000, for instance, Karatzaferis told the public to vote for his party because it did not include any Jews, communists or gay men and lesbians."

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=268884

Quite a vile bunch.

[Swede]

36. That symbol looks vaguely menacing and familiar.