Migrants pushed back off the coast of Lesbos by angry locals, journalists attacked, burnt reception centers, police buses transporting stony asylum seekers, humanitarian workers threatened… Attacks on migrants and those who help or protect them multiply on the Greek islands, especially on that of Lesbos.
Near the Turkish coast, Lesbos has seen an upsurge in the arrival of migrants since Turkey opened its borders at the end of last week. Some 1,720 migrants joined the Aegean islands in four days, according to government figures, adding to the 38,000 exiles already present in these Greek territories. Violence has crossed a milestone in Lesbos. The situation had already reached a breaking point with almost 20,000 people living in miserable conditions in a camp planned for 2,600 people.
The "burden" of the migration crisis
Exasperated to bear the burden of a European asylum system that they deem flawed, the islanders protest against the arrival of new exiles and demand the decongestion of their island. Observers already fear seeing the black flags of the extremes flutter. "This violence is the act of a minority but it is xenophobic acts", assures France 24 Eva Cossé, specialist in Greece at Human Right Watch (HRW).
For the moment, these acts would remain the fruit of isolated and unorganized individuals. "In Lesbos, it is a sharp anger, the fruit of an exasperation, there is no training behind them," said Eleni Takou, vice-president of the NGO Human Rights 360, even if she recalls that the nationalist parties (Golden Dawn and Greek Solution) collected more than 6% of the polls on Lesbos during the last legislative elections, in July 2019. According to her, the nationalist parties are already taking advantage of the arrival of the new migrants pushed on the roads from exile by Turkey.
"This deleterious situation pushes people 'naturally' into the arms of the far right. When Europe closed its doors, life became hell for everyone in Lesbos, for migrants of course, but also for locals The latter feel abandoned by Europe and they feel cheated by the government which has announced the construction of a new closed center ", continues Elini Takou.
In Athens, activists of the neo-Nazi Aube Doré party marched on the port of Piraeus on March 3 with an anti-migrant slogan. "They mobilized through social media. And this is neither the first nor the last demonstration. We expect to see more in the coming weeks."
"The rise of the far right is not automatic"
"All the elements are there to make fear a rise in power of the extreme right in Greece", abounds Georges Prevelakis, professor of geopolitics in Paris and Athens. "Any local population who sees the arrival of foreigners en masse is capable of worrying about the upheavals that this implies. But the rise of the extreme right is not automatic and for the moment, it seems that it will not not develop ", he relativizes.
The author of "Who are the Greeks? An identity in crisis" believes that the accusations of "fascism" with which the inhabitants of Lesbos may have been accused are "excessive language of abuse" and calls for collective memory. "We must not forget the solidarity shown by the Greeks since 2015. They are a people of exiles, nearly 1.2 million Greeks arrived from Turkey after the Great Disaster of 1922 and this makes them united ", he emphasizes. "Besides, we have passed the peak of influence of the extreme right in Greece".
>> Read also: In Lesbos, hospitality gives way to hostility
After seven years in the Greek parliament, the neo-Nazi Aube Dorée party did not manage to stay in Vouli during the legislative elections in July 2019. Long clandestine, the party entered it in 2012 with 7% of the votes, favor of the economic and social crisis. In 2015, the party reiterated its score. During this period, attacks on immigrants and leftist activists increased, including the assassination in 2013 of a Pakistani immigrant worker and a famous Greek anti-fascist rapper. This latest murder led to the opening in 2015 of the country's largest political trial: 69 people, including the leader and several executives from the neo-Nazi party, are still on trial.
"The trial for the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas contributed to discredit Golden Dawn and to make it clear that it was a group with methods of criminal action," said Elini Takou. Four years of trial, as well as the improvement of the economic situation of the country, strangled by a policy of implacable austerity, contributed to distance the voters from the radical party.
"Golden Dawn will be reborn in another form"
However, if the electoral base of the neo-Nazi party has crumbled, racism has not been contained. According to the latest report from the Racist Violence Observation Network (RVRN), "support for racist violence increased in 2018, while the attacks were carried out by groups displaying extremely xenophobic ideologies. Violent actions by "ordinary" citizens were also registered ".
Today, the survival of Golden Dawn seemed threatened and suspended at the verdict of the trial, expected in June. But this does not bode well for the end of the far right. "If it disappears, the party will rise from the ashes, in another form, under another name," predicts Elini Takou. The nationalist group "Greek Solution" already made its place at Vouli last July, becoming the country's fifth political force. Its founder, Kyriakos Velopoulos, notably proposed to build a six-meter-high wall at the Turkish border and promised to return the illegal migrants.
"We have to expect everything now. The more the EU abandons Greece to its fate as guardian of the European fortress, the more the country is precipitated into violence", fears Elini Takou who fears both the coast guard bullets and the voices of extremists. The latest messages from European partners give him little reason to remain optimistic. On the evening of March 4, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian assured that Europe will not give in to the blackmail of Turkey and that its borders will remain closed to migrants.
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