Based on reports from the “Antinazi Zone” website
(Antinazi Zone is antifascist campaign initiated by Xekinima – Greek section of IsP)
On March 4, 2026, Golden Dawn’s leadership (the main neofascist organisation in Greece) was convicted by the Court of Appeal for running a criminal organisation.
The Appeal Court upheld the initial, 2020, guilty verdicts for MPs and members of Golden Dawn, confirming once more what the antifascist movement in Greece had been arguing for decades: Golden Dawn was (and still is) a group of nazi criminals, responsible for (at least) two murders (those of the antifascist musician Pavlos Fyssas and the Pakistani worker Shahzad Luqman) and countless violent attacks on immigrants, trade unionists, people on the Left and the anarchist movement, etc.
After the initial court verdict of 2020, many argued that Golden Dawn has finished, that it is completely dismantled with no hope of ever recovering from that huge blow. Xekinima, and some others, stressed out that no matter how big that victory of the antifascist movement was, we ought to remain alert. This is because the very conditions that allow far right and fascist voices to reach wider audiences and spread roots amongst the most confused and desperate layers in society don’t just remain but have deteriorated. Austerity, poverty, dissolution of the welfare state, combined with the international rise of the far right, could revive not only the greek “alt right”, but even the pure nazi groups such as Golden Dawn, especially after its leadership is released from prison.
What has been happening the last months clearly indicates this trend.
Petroupoli
Last November, in Petroupoli, a municipality of west Athens, fascists from a local school tried to stop the school celebration that takes place every year on the anniversary of the Polytechnic event – the students’ uprising that tried to overthrow the military dictatorship in 1973. Fascist organisations like Golden Dawn argue that the student uprising is overrated, that nobody was killed during the events (in reality dozens were killed and many more were injured by the army and police agents who opened fire directly on the students) and that the dictatorship itself was a great period in Greece’s history, providing economic growth and rising living standards…
A few weeks later in a nearby school, members of Antinazi Zone were attacked by a group of fascists as they were distributing antifascist leaflets. The response was a long term campaign in local schools and the neighbourhood, ending with the very successful ”Art Against Fascism” event.
The results of the campaign were visible in many local schools. Many of the students started to openly talk about the need for antifascist action, breaking an atmosphere of terror that was beginning to spread in many schools. Students began to stand up against fascist provocations, overcoming the fear that was the dominant mood some months ago.
This of course, does not mean that the battle is over in Petroupoli. Golden Dawn is still there, trying to expand its influence in the area. A few weeks after the “Art Against Fascism” event, which was too massive for them to attack, they broke the windows and wrote fascist slogans on the walls of the venue of a local anarchist collective .
Attacks on immigrants and LGBT+ people
At the end of May, fascists attacked the festival of the Filipino Community in Greece, injuring one. They were described by witnesses as “men in black clothes”, chanting “foreigners out of our neighbourhoods”. Some days before, there was an attack against a transgender woman, who was approached by a group of men in a car. First they started shouting, threatening and insulting her, and then they splashed flammable liquid all over her, and tried to hit her with the car.
Golden Dawn and other, smaller fascist groups, are trying again to spread fear, especially in impoverished neighbourhoods of Athens, where many immigrants live. Their goal is to create new strongholds, areas where their presence is something to be feared, where they can make racist attacks an everyday normality. In order to achieve that, they try to recruit amongst the local youth especially directing their efforts towards schools.
In other cities
Neo-fascist groups, mostly consisting of young members (in their teens and early twenties) are getting active in other cities as well.
In the beginning of June, in Alexandroupoli, a city in north Greece, dozens of youth would gather in the evenings in the city centre, throwing stones and eggs against a social reading space, chanting slogans against immigrants and in support of Golden Dawn. The city is located in northern Greece where far right and fascist ideas have a stronger appeal than elsewhere.
In Volos (a city in central Greece), a group of about 20 (mostly under aged) boys in black clothes, recently marched through Ag. Paraskevi neighbourhood with huge Greek flags. When asked who they were, they responded that they were “nationalists” and “patriots”. Some days later, fascist slogans were written in schools and other buildings around the city. About a month before the march, the local branch of Golden Dawn youth had posted photographs of some of their members (with covered faces) holding as a loot an anti-war banner they had torn down. The picture was accompanied with threats that they will “clear” the city.
Antifascist network in Education
In response to the growing influence of fascist ideas amongst school students antifascist teachers and parents in Athens went ahead with the formation of the “Antifascist Network in Education”. Soon after, the example was followed in Volos. In its founding declaration, the Network says:
“We have a duty to… defend schools as spaces of creativity, joy, democracy, equality and tolerance, places where difference is not punished and silence is not gold… Our silence protects neither us nor our children. Only collective action can do that…”
The “Antifascist Network in Education” has only been active for a few months, but has already organised a number of meetings and events, it produces educational antiracist material, proposes antifascist books, documentaries, comics, etc for teachers to use in their classes, provides advice to parents and teachers who are trying to deal with the rise of fascist ideas in schools and homes.
Need to fight back
It is clear that Golden Dawn, as well as other fascist organisations are back on the streets. Of course the situation is not the same as at the time when they were the third largest party in the Greek parliament and had turned huge areas of the centre of Athens into unsafe, even inaccessible places for immigrants and other social groups. But this is exactly what they are planning to do.
It is urgent that the antifascist movement, the Left, combative grass roots trade unions, social movements, etc, work together to have an organised response to the fascist threat. Wherever there is an attack or an attempt to form a fascist group, in any school, university or neighbourhood, we need to create antifascist committees to block their way. These committees have to work as a shield for every vulnerable group of people (immigrants, LGBT+ people, etc) but also to provide local societies with easy to understand, class based arguments against the fascist ideas.
