'Because if you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their democracy, then all they are left with is nationalism and violence' - Nigel Farage, speaking to the EU parlament
Instead of just condemning the forces stirring in today's Greece - which would seem so easy for anyone not living there - perhaps we should understand it in the context of the country being first destroyed then enslaved economically, by the EU and the World Bank - in the literal sense.
This robbed the entirely innocent Greek People of many of both their civil and democratic rights, while being forced to watch greedy, corrupt politicians sell out their country, again in the literal sense, to unelected business executives and eurocrats, not entirely dissimilar to what has happened previously in the century. Golden Dawn had next to no influence before this collapse.
People are starving in the streets, society is replaced by an economic and unconstitutional prison, Golden Dawn has thus far been one of the few to offer any understanding of the people's grievances, offering support and food for the needy, emotional rhetoric to warm the cold and calm the rightly fearful - even if they've played for it politically, in the hope of a power grab. They've been the only ones, in the eyes of many Greeks, to seriously challenge what is perceived, and probably rightly so, as a foreign, hostile takeover of their country.
They are also nationalistic, violent and racist, in rhetoric aswell as action, and much more honest about their beliefs than most other right wingers. A textbook example of Germany in the 30s. And yet it doesn't seem so hard to understand why people are flocking beneath their banner, the situation and alternatives in mind. Many of their voters since their early obscurity come from not radical elements, people who may be afraid of and who do not agree with all the underlying fascism, but who sees Golden Dawn as the only party representing them, even if only to some extent.
