The rise of the religious far right...in Greece

We can be forgiven for looking at elections at times and blaming the politicians for not being to our tastes. They are after all a reflection of the electorate to some degree.

The first known democracy in the world was in Athens, Greece. In the modern nation of Greece, a general election has been conducted that yet again shows a resurgence of the far right. The Mediterranean country has for some time been grappling with the far right in its previous incarnation: the Golden Dawn party, a blot on the Greek political landscape was known for its neo-Nazi violence and hit squads.

In 2020, the party leader (Nikos Michaloliakos) was sentenced to 13 years in jail. He and six of the party's former lawmakers (including Member of the European Parliament Ioannis Lagos) were convicted of leading a criminal organization.

But rather than move on from this dalliance with the political extreme, Greece has merely relabeled the movement. The question is whether this will also include the more overtly troubling behavior of political violence and discrimination.

The right-hand man of Nikos Michaloliakos, self-styled Golden Dawn “Führer”  Ilias Kasidiaris, has been campaigning vociferously from behind bars for his new leave-formed nationalist party Hellenes—until they were outlawed by the Greek judiciary. This latter action may have thrown fuel on the fire for his supporters and those sympathetic to that end of the political spectrum.

As leftwing writer Dimitris Psarras laments, there is no such thing as bad publicity: “For three months, there was blanket media coverage about him and the Hellenes. It was the best advertisement he could have had.”

Six of the 12 MPs voted into parliament for the Spartans, a new far-right political party, were originally from Kasidiaris’s outlawed Hellenes party.

The problem, of course, is that the issues that provide fertile ground in which such politics can germinate and grow still prevail. For example, the country still recovering from the economic catastrophe that resulted in a huge EU bailout (or three) and the resulting severe policies of austerity. The violently active ingredient in the fertilizer, however, is the continued humanitarian crisis of refugees and asylum seekers pouring into Greece, one of the gates of Europe. Syria and North Africa are but a stone's throw away.

The party's name taps a fascination with both the reality and myth of the ancient city-state that can be traced nearly back to the time of Sparta itself—so powerfully that a word has been coined for the obsession: laconophilia.

In his History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell noted that the evocation of discipline, purity, and military strength linked to Spartan culture "had a great part in framing the doctrines of Rousseau, Nietzsche, and National Socialism." The party's name taps this existing obsession with an exaggerated past glory, contrasting it with a picture of modern Greece as weak and shot through with impurities.

It's a narrative that should sound familiar: Make Greece Great Again, or perhaps for consistency, Make Again Greece Awesome.

Last week, the general election thrust the Spartans into Parliament, assisted by the imprisoned neo-Nazi Golden Dawn leader. But it is not just Spartans (becoming the fifth biggest party in the 300-seat parliament with 4.7% of the vote and 12 seats) who have seen some success at the ballot box. Two other parties—Greek Solution and Niki—have also outperformed expectations.

Cumulatively, the far right gained close to 13% of the vote, translating into 34 seats in Greek Parliament.

Together, these parties represent a fascistic conglomeration of religious fundamentalists and ultranationalists. The center-right New Democracy's Kyriakos Mitsotakis has won a second term as prime minister, and did so with a record margin over the left.

The Spartans' mission statement declares its desire to preserve "the same people, the same language, the same religion, the same kind" and the desire "to take back the Homeland that belongs to us." They gained the support of 240,000 Greeks at the ballot box.

Niki's political positioning is no better:

Niki's party platform dedicates a section to demographics, in which it decries the "uprooting of the native population of our country and its violent replacement by a completely foreign (in terms of culture, origin, religion, language) population." It also directly cites the Kalergi Plan, a conspiracy theory popular in far-right circles that claims the EU is trying to exterminate the white population of Europe through mass immigration. The party is also close with many figures in the Greek Orthodox Church.

And Greek Solution calls for forming an alliance with Russia, building lengths of electrified border fences, and clamors for traditional values. But where the other two parties are comfortable sitting on the far right, Greek Solution is not a fan of such labeling, saying in a press release, "We are patriots, we are Greek, and we are proud of it. Therefore, those who persist in slandering the Greek Solution with false and slanderous characterizations will be held criminally and civilly accountable."

The three parties have successfully coalesced around the same ideology:

The Spartans, Greek Solution, and Niki are united around a set of principles, largely stressing hostility to mass immigration, closeness with the Greek Orthodox Church, concern over demographics, skepticism toward NATO and the European Union, hostility toward Turkey and North Macedonia, and a strong Greek identity.

The party ran on a strong anti-abortion stance, mixed with a heady religiosity, that worked wonders to gain support in rural communities and in the small towns of northern Greece.

This is a huge problem for anyone concerned about the war in Ukraine, and geopolitical maelstrom whipping the world into a frenzy. It leaves one wondering whether Russia's successful interference in other elections around the world, supporting political discord through fifth-generation warfare, might have played a hand here as well.

Anti-NATO, anti-EU, pro-religion, pro-life, anti-immigration... It appears that the Greeks are upping the ante in the fight to see who can most appeal to Tucker Carlson.

On the other hand, the previously ruling leftist party, SYRIZA, faced its worst showing since 2012, winning just shy of 18% of the vote. The left-wing newspaper Syntakton said, “The elections have produced the ‘darkest’ result of the last half-century.”

With war continuing to ravage the world and there being no sign of imminent economic boom times around the corner, And with there being no foreseeable solution to the world gathering humanitarian and environmental crises, the stage is set for continued growth and resurgence in far rights ideology and political success.

It appears that it only takes a few generations to forget the existential threats of extremist politics.