Amid hard times, anti-immigrant sentiments in Greece growing  — report

Amid hard times, nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiments in Greece are growing, a report of the New York Times said.  One political party, the Greek ultranationalist group Golden Dawn, is campaigning "for a clean Greece, only for Greeks, a safe Greece.” According to the Stock Estimate of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), some 11,100 Filipinos were residing in Greece as of 2010. The New York Times said the "hard-core group" Golden Dawn is "known for its violent tangles with immigrants in downtown Athens and for the Nazi salutes that some members perform at rallies." Founded in the 1980s, the Golden Dawn "has always espoused a neo-Nazi ideology. Its symbol clearly resembles the swastika, and copies of “Mein Kampf” and books on the racial superiority of the Greeks are on prominent display in its Athens headquarters," the report said. It added that the group was "capitalizing on fears that illegal immigration has grown out of control at a time when the economy is bleeding jobs." Experts say the group is thriving where the Greek state seems absent, the most virulent sign of how the economic collapse has empowered fringe groups while eroding the political mainstream, a situation that some Greek news outlets have begun comparing to Weimar Germany. Ilias Panagiotaros, the group’s spokesman, is a candidate for office in the May 6 national elections.

 

The New York Times said the "Golden Dawn may surpass the 3 percent threshold needed to enter Parliament. The group has been campaigning on the streets, something that mainstream politicians have avoided for fear of angry reactions by voters who blame them for Greece’s economic collapse." The report said even though the Golden Dawn will fail to enter Parliament, it already had an impact on political debate.

 

"Greece’s two leading parties — the Socialist Party and the center-right New Democracy Party — have also tapped into nationalist sentiment and are tacking hard right in a campaign in which immigration has become as central as the economy," the report added. - VVP, GMA News