Posted on 07 November 2012
A group of EUI researchers has launched a photographic exhibition on the history of Golden Dawn, the Greek far-right political party that obtained over 7 per cent of votes in the country’s last election and according to polls may have even wider support from citizens.
The exhibition, organised by the ‘Collettivo Prezzemolo’ group of EUI researchers and staff, will run from 12 to 18 November in the Badia’s cloister and include photographs and an audio-visual installation.
Collettivo Prezzemolo says the aim is to inform the EUI community of a movement which has limited coverage in the international press but that characterises the reality of many Greek cities and the life of specific communities such as homosexuals, migrants and political activists.
“If Weimar's democracy was exhausted by the war reparation debts and by unemployment, its Athenian counterpart is shattered by the politics of austerity and the debt crisis. Neo-Nazism looms in Athens, feeding on chaos, poverty and despair,” says the organisers.
On display just weeks after the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, this exhibition will underline the risks of economic and social stress, when worsening living conditions can be followed by waves of xenophobia and ethnic unrest, says Collettivo Prezzemolo.
The exhibition is divided into two sections, with the first constructing the story of Golden Dawn and its main leaders, while the second examines recent cases of neo-Nazi aggression towards homosexuals and migrants in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki.
The exhibition has been timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic Uprising on 17 November 1973, when a student protest against the military junta in Greece ended violently.