Golden Dawn: Right-wing Greek party calling for permanent end to asylum

Ahmed Sami Abdel Fattah

There is no doubt that the refugee crisis on Greece’s borders bears negative consequences on the entire Greek political process, placing the conservative New Democracy party, which won the 2019 parliamentary elections at the expense of the left-wing Syriza party, in a difficult test for Greece. Refusing to receive refugees contradicts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and undermines the moral image that European countries are trying to give their foreign policies. On the other hand, accepting refugees exposes Greece to a stifling economic crisis and opens the door to changing the country’s demographics.

The far-right parties are working to take advantage of the status quo to increase their popularity, especially after they failed miserably in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

The agreement signed by the European Union with Turkey in 2015 played a major role in reducing the refugee crisis, which negatively affected Greece’s right-wing Golden Dawn party.

Double benefit

Turkey is well aware that opening its borders to refugees brings a double benefit on the political and economic levels. On the one hand, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) took advantage of the security situation in Idlib to get rid of the refugees in Turkey, robbing Turkish opposition of a an important point in its peaceful war against the Erdogan regime. This was clearly demonstrated in a speech by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, March 3, when he said that his country had rejected a European offer of €1 billion in exchange for stopping the influx of refugees. This shows that Turkey is trying to use the crisis to get rid of the burden of refugees and send them to Europe.

Turkish media also exploits this matter, depicting it as a victory against the West, which is unable to tolerate a new wave of refugees. On another level, the Erdogan regime is well aware that the refugee crisis will cause fear in the ruling circles in Greece, because it strengthens the chances of the right-wing parties rejecting to stay in the European Union.

Golden Dawn, established in 1985, is an extreme nationalist party that sees exiting the European Union as a way to return Greece to its status as a global leader. This party was able to take advantage of the economic crisis that struck Greece in the wake of the global financial crisis that started in 2008, and it succeeded in adding 21 members to the Greek parliament in the May 2012 elections.