The Popular Association – Golden Dawn (), usually shortened to Golden Dawn (, ), is a far-right, neo-Nazi, and ultranationalist criminal organisation, and former political party in Greece. Golden Dawn rose to prominence during the Greek government-debt crisis, becoming the third most popular party in the Greek parliament in the January 2015 election. Its support has since plunged, and it failed to enter parliament in the 2019 election.
Nikolaos Michaloliakos began the foundations of what would become Golden Dawn in 1980 when he published the first issue of the neo-Nazi journal by the name Chrysi Avgi. In this context, Golden Dawn originated in the movement that worked towards a return to right-wing military dictatorship in Greece. Following an investigation into the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a self-identified member, Michaloliakos and several other Golden Dawn MPs and members were arrested and held in pre-trial detention on suspicion of forming a criminal organization. The trial began on 20 April 2015. Golden Dawn lost all its remaining seats in the Greek Parliament in the 2019 Greek legislative election. A 2020 survey showed the party's popularity plummeting to 1.5%, down from 2.9% in the previous year's elections, and a peak of 7.0%.
Golden Dawn is commonly described as neo-Nazi and neo-fascist. While the group has rejected these labels, its members have expressed admiration for the former Greek dictators Ioannis Metaxas of the 4th of August Regime (1936–1941) and Georgios Papadopoulos of the Regime of the Colonels (1967–1974). . (pp. 117–128.) Moreover, Michaloliakos, the group's founder and self-declared "Führer", advocates Holocaust denial, and is an ardent supporter of Adolf Hitler. Golden Dawn also uses meander-like symbolism that is very similar to that of the Nazis, Nazi salutes, and blood-and-soil slogans, and has also praised figures of Nazi Germany. The group is racist and xenophobic, and the party's leader has himself openly identified it as ultranationalist and racist. Golden Dawn has also been described as ultranationalist,On the Road with Golden Dawn, Greece's Ultra-Nationalist Party. Time. Published 31 October 2012. Retrieved 11 March 2017. as they support the creation of Greater Greece and have been strongly critical of the European Union. On social issues, they are traditionalist and oppose immigration, and on fiscal matters, they are protectionist. Golden Dawn has engaged in far-right rhetoric with strong employment of antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Turkism, and homophobia. The Hellenic Police has been criticised for its close links to Golden Dawn by government ministers, human rights activists, and whistleblower police officers.
On 7 October 2020, the Athens Court of Appeals announced verdicts for 68 defendants, including the party's political leadership. The General Secretary Nikolaos Michaloliakos and six other prominent members and former MPs were charged with running a criminal organization. Guilty verdicts on charges of murder, attempted murder, and violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing political opponents were delivered, and the leadership was sent to prison.
History 1980–2005 In December 1980, Nikolaos Michaloliakos and a group of supporters launched Chrysi Avgi magazine. Michaloliakos had been active in far-right politics for many years, having been arrested several times for politically motivated offences, such as beatings and illegal possession of explosive materials, which led to his discharge from the military.Γράφει ο ΙΟΣ Eleftherotypia 2 July 1998 (in Greek)Article about Michaloliakos published on Golden Dawn's website. While he was in prison, Michaloliakos met the leaders of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 and laid the foundations of the Golden Dawn party. The characteristics of the magazine -which featured the swastika and other Nazi symbols, Adolf Hitler, Nazis and collaborators, and some of its issues bore the alternate title "National-Socialist Periodical Publication"- and of the organisation were clearly aligned to Neo-Nazism. Chrysi Avgi magazine ceased publication in April 1984, when Michaloliakos joined the National Political Union and took over the leadership of its youth section. In January 1985, he broke away from the National Political Union and founded the Popular National Movement – Golden Dawn, which was officially recognised as a political party in 1993.
Golden Dawn remained largely on the margins of far-right politics until the Macedonia naming dispute in 1991 and 1992. On 10 October 1992, during a massive demonstration against the use of the name Macedonia by the then-Republic of Macedonia, about 30 Golden Dawn members attacked students at the Athens University of Economics and Business occupation, a housing squat and two members of a leftist organisation, OSE. 9 Golden Dawn members were arrested by the police, but released without charges, and a Golden Dawn's press release assumed responsibility for clashing with "organised anti-national elements".ΣΧΕΣΕΙΣ ΑΚΡΟΔΕΞΙΑΣ-ΕΛ.ΑΣ. Eleftherotypia. 27 September 1998 (in Greek) Around the same time, the first far-right street gangs appeared under the leadership of Giannis Giannopoulos, a former military officer who was involved with the South African neo-Nazi Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) during the 1980s. After the events of 1991 and 1992, Golden Dawn had gained a stable membership of more than 200 members, and Giannopoulos rose within the party hierarchy. Golden Dawn ran in the 1994 European Parliament election, gaining 7,264 votes nationwide; 0.1% of the votes cast.
During the 1980s, the party embraced Hellenic Neopagan beliefs, praised the Twelve Olympians and described Marxism and liberalism as "the ideological carriers of Judeo-Christianity".Our Ideology: God Religion (Η Ιδεολογία Μας: Θεός-θρησκεία), Golden Dawn's newspaper, issue 57, October 1990 After the party went through ideological changes, it later endorsed Greek Orthodox Christianity.Η ΝΕΑ ΑΚΡΟΔΕΞΙΑ. Eleftherotypia 18 June 2000 (in Greek)
During the Bosnian War, Golden Dawn members participated in the Greek Volunteer Guard (GVG), part of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska. A few GVG volunteers were present in Srebrenica during the Srebrenica massacre, and they raised a Greek flag at a ruined church after the fall of the town.Michas, Takis;"Unholy Alliance", Texas A&M University Press: Eastern European Studies (College Station, Tex.) pp. 22 Spiros Tzanopoulos, a GVG sergeant who took part in the attack against Srebrenica, said many of the Greek volunteers participated in the war because they were members of Golden Dawn.Για τη Λευκή Φυλή και την Ορθοδοξία Eleftherotypia 16 July 2005 (in Greek) Golden Dawn members in the GVG were decorated by Radovan Karadžić. According to Charis Kousoumvris, a former member of Golden Dawn, those who were decorated later left the party.
In April 1996, Giannopoulos represented the party at a pan-European convention of far-right nationalist parties in Moscow, where he presented a bust of Alexander the Great to Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky for his birthday. Golden Dawn participated in the 1996 legislative election in September, receiving 4,487 votes nationwide; 0.07% of the votes cast.Results of the 1996 legislative election. In October 1997, Giannopoulos published an article in Chrysi Avgi magazine calling for nationalist vigilantism against immigrants and liberals.1998 article in Eleftherotypia. In 1998, a prominent party member, Antonios Androutsopoulos, assaulted Dimitris Kousouris, a left-wing student activist. The resulting media attention, along with internal party conflicts (due to poor results in the 1996 elections), led some of its most extreme members to gradually fade from official party affairs.
Androutsopoulos finally surrendered in 2005 and was convicted of the attempted murder of Kousouris and another two left-wing activists, for which he received a 21-year prison term. The other members of the squad that attacked Kousouris were never prosecuted. In March 2009, Androutsopoulos appealed his sentence and had it reduced to 12 years but was released from prison a few months later. Golden Dawn continued to hold rallies and marches, and it ran in the 1999 European election in an alliance with the Front Line party, gaining 48,532 votes nationwide; 0.75% of the votes cast."Ta alla Kommata" , Macedonian Press Agency information on the 1999 elections. In 2005, Eleftherotypia reported that Golden Dawn members distributed homophobic flyers during the first Athens pride parade.
2005–2019
According to Golden Dawn's leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the party suspended its own autonomous political activities after 1 December 2005 because of clashes with anarchists. Golden Dawn members were instructed to continue their activism within the Patriotic Alliance party, which was very closely linked to Golden Dawn., European National Front websiteArticle in the website of Patriotic Alliance, stating that "those who contributed mostly in our political campaign were the youth of Golden Dawn". The former leader of Patriotic Alliance, Dimitrios Zaphiropoulos, was once a member of Golden Dawn's political council, and Michaloliakos became a leading member of Patriotic Alliance. There were accusations that the "Patriotic Alliance" was simply the new name of Golden Dawn. Activities by Patriotic Alliance's members were often attributed to Golden Dawn (even by the members themselves), furthering this confusion. For this reason, Golden Dawn's members eventually announced the withdrawal of their support of the Patriotic Alliance, which eventually led to the interruption of Golden Dawn's political activities. the withdrawal of their support to Patriotic Alliance.News of the disbandment of Patriotic Alliance, in Independent Media Center. In March 2007, Golden Dawn held its sixth congress and announced the resumption of their political and ideological activism.. (in Greek)
In May 2012, WordPress shut down Golden Dawn's official website and blog due to death threats made against Xenia Kounalaki, a journalist.
In 2018, Ilias Kasidiaris, then a member of the party, declared himself an admirer of the Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and added that the only non-hypocritical European countries were those of Visegrad. He asked why Muslim migrants did not go to Saudi Arabia or other Islamic countries, and claimed "We at Golden Dawn want to give priority to Christian asylum seekers. And, in any event, Greece cannot continue to welcome everyone in. If we ever get into power, we will put economic migrants in jail, instead of hosting them in hotspots, as Syriza does."
In an article in March 2019, the leader of the party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, declared that "Of course, Greece at the greatest moments of in its history was never multi-racial" and concluded that "The only way to stop the destruction of our nation is to fight hard in order to make our Fatherland a national state again, a Greece that will belong to the Greeks."
Decline and conviction of leadership During the 2019 European Parliament election Golden Dawn won only 4.88% of the vote and won only 2 seats, down from 9.4% and 3 seats in 2014. During the 2019 Greek Legislative election Golden Dawn lost all of its 18 seats in the Hellenic Parliament, winning only 2.93% of the vote, down from 7.0% in 2015. Shortly after the elections, one of the Golden Dawn's two MEPs, Giannis Lagos, abandoned the party and refused to hand over his seat, thus leaving GD with just 1 seat in the European Parliament. In November 2019, Lagos founded the National Popular Consciousness.