Who are these more than 400,000 Greeks who casted a vote in favor of extreme-right party Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) at May 6 elections? How did the party claimed to be the Ne-Nazis of Greece managed to receive 7% of the votes and sent 21 of its elected members to the parliament?According to a survey conducted by the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, one of the main parameters that played an important role in the rise of Chrysis Avgi is their positions towards immigrants as well as the stance of Greeks towards them. A stance that is generally described as ‘negative’.
The majority of syrvey respondents said that they felt the immigrants’ presence hurts the economy and undermine the cultural life and identity of the country.
It should be noted that negative attitudes towards immigrants are not limited to areas with a high emigration presence, but diffused and residents of other apartments in Athens. In other words, the anti-immigrant attitudes released by “local” issues and the experience of everyday life and becomes a generalized post regardless of whether they address real problems of insecurity or unemployment
According to the survey, the influence of Chrysi Avgi is stronger:
a) among men b) ages 35-44 c) high school graduates and those absorbed technical education d) unemployed and traders.
Half of the Athenians against immigrants
When asked what they believe to be the impact of immigrants on the economy of the country 59% of residents in the 4th and 6th districts of Athens (districts include Kolonos, Sepolia, Academis Platonos) and 53% of residents of other apartments say they think it is negative.
In the first district group 33% of residents and 36% of the other areas said neutral and 8% and 11% respectively think it is positive.
When asked if they believe that immigrants undermine or enrich the cultural life of the country 61% of respondents in the city center said undermine, 31% have a neutral position and the 8% that enrich.
The rates for residents of other areas of Athens is 52%, 32% and 16% respectively.
The negative attitude against immigrants is not limited to voters of Chrysi Avgi, but shared also by voters of other parties.
The voters of left parties, though they too negative towards immigrants, are more conciliatory, while others apparently are in favor of a stricter policy.
Fear and crime
On a scale of 1 to 10 and on the effect immigrants have on the economy (0 = negative, 10 = positive) PASOK voters are making to average 3.4, ND 2.2, the Communist Party 3.4, LAOS 1.4, SYRIZA 3.8, 2.9 Green Party, Independent Greek 1.8, Chrysi Avgi 1.5 , Democratic Left 3.9 and Drasi 4.7.
Respondents’ answers show that the feeling of fear is pervasive among the residents throughout the Municipality of Athens.
Almost 2 out of 3 said, they “would feel fear if they needed to cross their neighborhood park after midnight” and 1 out of 3 said that “I would feel fear if I’d needed to stay a;one in my apartments for a couple of days during August” – the high summer holiday season.
Punishment and chauvinism
Respondents tend to favor less punishment for criminal of Greek origin and higher punishment for immigrants, irrespectively of whether they were legal or not.
Given the example of theft cases, only 27% of respondents suggest imprisonment of more than two years to a Greek burglar.
In comparison: a burglar should be sentenced to more than 2 years imprisonment if
he was Albanian with legal documents (said 46%), Albanian without legal documents (said 52%) and Afghan (said 49%)
These answers dismiss the common belief that Greek attitudes towards immigrants vary depending on the status of the immigrant, since the penalties proposed for the Albanian burglar who has a residence permit do not statistically differ from the penalties proposed for the corresponding nationality of burglar who has no residence permit.
source: To VIMA Sunday edition
Good that you placed this here. Ch.A. fills me with disgust. But the reasons why these thugs get so many votes in times like these are universal. And so dammed hard to fight. Why, because the anger, frustration and fear of ordinary people is real. And all over the world this is channeled into xenophobia. Like your post shows.
How many times did I hear that those foreigners should be sent ‘home’ when ‘they’ were caught stealing or so. Even when they were 3th generation and as much part of the society as the persons who demanded their deportation. And yes, they never ask their ‘own’ to be deported.
Statistics, cultural differences… it is all explainable, but it never matters when dealing with all this.
All is very disturbing. But Ch.A. is even more disturbing. People like Wilders, Haider and so on are for most part opportunist who play off the feelings of unrest and uncertainty. And xenofobia is for them just something to exploit for their personal gain. But Ch.A. looks another kettle of fish. Their leader, who admires the man who slaughtered so many Greek children through crimal starvation alone… there is logic in it. Just raw hate and real nazism. When people vote for the Wilders, Haiders, Bossi I don’t agree and don’t like it but I can rationalize why they do. With Ch.A. there is something much more sinister, darker going on. And I can not begin to rationalize why, otherwise decent people would even contemplate voting for people who refer one of the biggest murderers of Greek people ever.
their rates are lower in opinion polls, maybe because som eo ftheir voters got “EGERTHITO”
It makes me sick that there are greeks like Antonis who support the illegal filth living in Greece. NTROPI SOU…
Who do you call “FILTH”?! To call human beings that is below any norm and you should be prosecuted for that.
(And I really don’t understand why this was allowed on this site.)
I thought KTG-readers should occationally read also this kind of comments. If I permanently delete them, a wrong message is given. don’t you think so?
No I don’t think so. I’ll mail you…
Thanks Ann, but I don’t think he was calling Ch.A. ‘filth’…
Your other point a good one:
This kind of local activism is a tactic they copied from the Palestinian Hamas and the Turkish AK Party, to name just two groups who were very successful with this approach.
By jumping in on areas where the state is showing it’s total failure they created grass-roots support. And that is what Ch.A. did understood well.
And one can ask again, why the other parties never bothered to step in and help the old, the lonely and the weak when they were crying for help? Helping by just collecting the medication, accompany people to the local ATMs and so on. By failing to do so they left this to Ch.A. and therefore the rise of that group is for a good part a product of their failure.
Yes, let’s hope that the antics of the Ch.A. leader did open enough eyes to their real agenda. But I have my doubts. If you look at other countries, like The Netherlands, you see that anti-foreigner or immigrant parties have the habit seeing their support growing at every instant when they are attacked on their ideas and philosophies.
why the other parties didn’t do anything to help the old? because they’re an ‘unstable’ voting basis… cynical, right?
When that is true, then it is not so much cynical but utterly stupid. The sick, the needy and the very old are the natural allies for the left. But they almost never vote for them, because of things like this.
What these people fail to realise is that you do not become less of a victim yourself by victimizing somebody else. You just become a bigger asshole… But it’s easier to see a scapgoat than a real solution