Greek election 2015: Golden Dawn rises on austerity-driven despair

[zenitzz]

Far-right fringe party has shed boots for suits and toned down its rhetoric to emerge as Europe’s most dangerous political force

Short, squat and strident, Nikos Michaloliakos draws thunderous applause as he exhorts the crowd to stand up and say “No!” Days before Greeks go to the polls, the Golden Dawn leader does not want his message to go unheard.

“No to the memorandums. No to illegal immigration,” he roars as he punches the air before a backdrop emblazoned by his party’s swastika-style motif. “We won’t allow them to make us a minority in our own country!”

Until March, the seemingly avuncular Michaloliakos was in prison on charges of running a criminal gang masquerading as a political organisation. But six months is a long time in politics.

As he spits into the microphone, his face contorted with fury, his voice tremulous and his supporters cheering him on, it is clear the neo-fascist leader is on a roll. Golden Dawn is having a good election.

Four short weeks of campaigning before a snap poll called by the leftist leader and former prime minister Alexis Tsipras have gone surprisingly well. In successive opinion surveys, the virulently anti-immigrant, antisemitic, anti-EU party has emerged as Greece’s third-biggest political force – the sole certainty in an election that has defied expectation in almost every other way.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/greek-election-2015-golden-dawn-austerity

[bryant.coleman]

Even if the Golden Dawn is able to win some 30 or so seats (out of a total of 300), it will be only having a limited influence in the Greek politics. No other political party (including SYRIZA and New Democracy) will co-operate with them, and they will be some sort of untouchables, even if they are able to win a good number of parliamentary seats.

[saddampbuh]

sadly they're polling at under 7% and will be lucky to keep the # of seats they have now

greece has so many old people who think life was wonderful under pasok in the 1980s, they have to die off before there can be any meaningful change

[bryant.coleman]

sadly they're polling at under 7% and will be lucky to keep the # of seats they have now

Opinion polls in the past have widely under-estimated the support for Golden Dawn, for a variety of reasons. The same might be happening right now, and therefore opinion polls can't be used to measure the Golden Dawn support. Their real support might be more than 10% now, as the refugee crisis has managed to give them a boost in many of the Greek provinces.

[n3o111]

I always look poll results before elections highly skeptical.
Tsipras will win the elections again. There won't be any difference because they have already accepted economical rules of EU. It'll be interesting to see how Greek community react results after elections.