NY TIMES/PHOTOS FROM GREECE
ATHENS — A week after an extremist right-wing party gained an electoral foothold in Greece’s Parliament earlier this summer, 50 of its members riding motorbikes and armed with heavy wooden poles roared through Nikaia, a gritty suburb west of here, to telegraph their new power.
(1)Supporters of Golden Dawn, an extremist right-wing party, celebrated last month after the party gained an electoral foothold in the Greek Parliament, with 18 seats.Credit: Nikolas Giakoumidis/Associated Press
(2)There is abundant anecdotal evidence of a rising tide of violence and intimidation against immigrants, legal and illegal, by members of Golden Dawn and its sympathizers, who have been emboldened by political support for their ideology not seen since the 1974 military dictatorship.Credit: European Pressphoto Agency
(3)Members of the Golden Dawn Party waited to attend a swearing-in ceremony in Athens. Soon after the ceremony, 50 party members, riding motorbikes and armed with wooden poles, roared through the gritty Nikaia suburb west of Athens to telegraph their new power. The men careened around the main square, some brandishing shields emblazoned with stylized swastikas and delivered an ultimatum to immigrants whose businesses have catered to Nikaia’s Greeks for nearly a decade.Credit: Yorgos Karahalis/Reuters
(4)“They said, ‘You’re the cause of Greece’s problems. You have seven days to close or we’ll burn your shop — and we’ll burn you,’” said Mohammed Irfan, right, a legal Pakistani immigrant who owns a hair salon and two other stores. When Mr. Irfan called the police for help, he said, the officer who answered laughed and said they did not have time to come to the aid of immigrants like him.Credit: Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune
(5)Qaiser Parvez, a Pakistani immigrant, handed out anti-Golden Dawn fliers. A spokesman for Golden Dawn denied that anyone associated with the group had made such a threat.Credit: Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune
(6)Mr. Parvez read an anti-fascist poster. As a downturn deepens across Europe, the political right has risen in several countries, including France, the Netherlands and Hungary. But the situation in Greece shows how quickly such vigilante activity can expand in the absence of a government that is either too preoccupied, dealing with the financial crisis, unable or disinclined to deal with the problem.Credit: Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune
(7)Stratos Papadeas, 33, runs the Byzantium gift shop selling Greek Orthodox icons near the Acropolis. As the crisis devours business, Mr. Papadeas has grown exasperated with illegal Pakistani and African immigrants who make money selling fake designer purses outside his door. “They are killing jobs for Greek people. They scare customers away, and they engage in criminality,” Mr. Papadeas said. “I’m not racist, but something needs to be done.”Credit: Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune
(8) African immigrants selling counterfeit bags outside Mr. Papadeas’s store. He said he almost asked Golden Dawn to “clean the streets” but hesitated as reports of their methods proliferated.Credit: Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune
(9) Mr. Papadeas’s family cares for a skeletal Kenyan immigrant, Omar, whom he said Golden Dawn members beat savagely one day. Ilias Kasidiaris, the party’s spokesman, denied accusations of vigilantism, including charges of beatings and extremism. “This is not serious stuff,” he said. “It’s science fiction, a screenplay and an urban legend.”Credit: Eirini Vourloumis for The International Herald Tribune
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