Members of the organization “United Macedonians” brought their barbecue in the central square of Diavata, Northern Greece, set the charcoal on fire and started to grill their pork souvlaki on Sunday morning. The action aims to provoke Muslims in the nearby refugee and migrants camp.
The smell of grilled pork filled the area and slowly started flocking to the “BBQ of Hate” some moved by ideological motivation others eager for the free meal and free alcohol.
Locals from Diavata but also residents from the broader area and Thessaloniki, like the former regional governor of Central Macedonia, arch-conservative Panagiotis Psomiadis.
Since its announcement last week, the event aiming to provoke Muslims refugees and migrants, triggered stormy reactions also on political level. However, as nobody thought to ban it on the ground of “inciting provocation, hate and racism” the so-called “United Macedonians” proceeded with their plans.
“We resist in every way the colonization of Greece and Europe by the directed Islamists who are in overwhelming majority illegal migrants,” the BBQ organizers said in a statement.
“To the transnational and Islamic segregation of our country and Europe, we respond with plenty of pork meat and plenty of alcohol, with plenty of trolling and fighting action,” the “United Macedonians” concluded.
Present at the event were also the president of the Association of Syrians in Greece. In statements to the press he said “Here isn’t the Caliphate of the ISIS, here everyone can drink his beer or eat pork.”
However, the “patriots’ resonance” was not as big as the organizers expecting. There is talk of 100 people, with the majority of them to have gone there just for the free souvlaki.
United Macedonians
Who are the “United Macedonians”? According to daily ethnos, they starred in Macedonia rallies opposing the Prespes Agreement. “Their page on Facebook is full of intolerance and racist messages, full of poison against refugees. The Italian far-right politician Matteo Salvini is their hero and they call him ‘wide boy’. They love guns and play paintball in order to remain fir for fighting as they say.”
Anti-racist protest
At the same time, members of the “Movement against Racism and Fascist Threat” (KEERFA) and leftist organizations gathered outside the former military camp “Anagnostopoulos” in solidarity with the refugees and migrants.
They described the BBQ as a “racist initiative by a minority of the local community” stressing that it was organized by “far-right organizations.”
Banner with hint to the Golden Dawn trial: “Life for Nazis – Refugees Welcome.”
“The mobilization in Diavata is clearly racist in that it seeks to offend the religious sentiment of people fleeing war and poverty,” KEERFA said in a statement. It criticized ruling New Democracy as some members of the conservative party hinted that there was an attempt to forbid the consumption of pork meat in Greece.
“Soon enough, ND officials began stepping back when they realized that their racist campaign was turning boomerang despite the systematic hysteria by the mainstream media that has been pouring the racist poison of Islamophobia against the refugees claiming that they have covered thousands sof kilometers away form their countries in order to alternate our culture.”
PS Sadly, more and more Greeks fall into this daily propaganda by mainstream media, more and more people repeat the key words “invasion”, “Islamification of Greece” and wonder whether the refugees “could not be settled on uninhabited islands,” as the far-right Greek Solution proposed. These people are shocked when you tell them that once they receive asylum, they are free to live in the country. “Thousands have received asylum since 2015 and many live among us” I told a friend yesterday. “OH!” she said “I didn’t realize this! Never seen anyone around!”
This migration issue is a very complex one that the average Greek who gets selective information by mainstream media and TV cannot comprehend all the different facets of the problem.
The danger is in fact in that old proverb: he who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.
Two points here. The philosophy of the fascist group “United Macedonians” is that they love guns. (I presume that most of them are actually refugees from 1922, and not from Macedonia anyway). Secondly, Greece needs more young people, as does all of Europe. If Greeks think that it is better for Greece to collapse economically, rather than accept refugees to do the work that there are no Greeks to perform in the near future, then let them commit national suicide. They have the example of suicidal Brexit supporters to follow (and will soon see how well that works out!).
re your stunning comment:
“Secondly, Greece needs more young people, as does all of Europe. If Greeks think that it is better for Greece to collapse economically, rather than accept refugees to do the work that there are no Greeks to perform in the near future, ”
Greece’s shrinking population [Europe’s too] is strictly economic in origin. Fix the economics and Europe’s population would boom. Encourage and support young families as in Belgium and Hungary and there would be a renaissance. Imagine a world in which the Greek monies (not EU) now being spent on migrants went to young Greeks instead – so that they would not have to flee Greece to find work (over 20%+ of young people and 70%+ of young professionals) thus creating both a brain and population drain. So that they could afford to marry and raise their children here in Greece and not as pretend-British or pretend-Germans, pretend-Australians etc. Meanwhile these richer countries are reaping the benefit of Greek tax money spent on educating our youth as doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects etc.
Our population is shrinking through voodoo economics,. Instead of taking care of our own population we are forced to take care of a migrant population. A broke country must spend its meagre resources on supporting strangers. In place of our own children: non-Greek speaking, often illiterate and largely unassimilable foreigners with few marketable skills and resentment at being stuck here….
As for the jobs that Greeks wouldn’t do, which are they? Our young people here despite their diplomas work at any job they can get from olive harvest to delivery boys to bottling to construction to rubbish collection….what jobs will the migrants find?
Meanwhile can it be coincidence that along with migrant trafficking there is a rise in serious crime – drug smuggling, human trafficking, organ trafficking, and especially arms smuggling. A lot of money is being made on the back of this engineered migration, more than half of it in kickbacks and internationally. Not to mention on the tired propaganda from people like yourself.
And if the obvious is pointed out, one is instantly defamed as ‘racist’ fascist’ ‘hate-filled’ …oh really? Greeks have shown enormous patience and generosity. But there are practical issues and limits. Since when can issues and phenomena not be separated? Since when can effects not be discussed?
The tired propaganda is from you. Declining birth rates are common to all developed countries, not only those with failing economies, This problem was visible in the 1990s — well before the “voodoo economics” as you put it: right wing austerity economics that denies the work of the great economist Maynard Keynes is a more sensible description. So your claim is just wrong: population ageing is an intrinsic part of the developed world and its social behaviour.
Which jobs? The bad jobs, which native populations always refuse to do. Greece has always had a segmented labour market, with the best jobs going to those with political connections and the worst going to immigrants, including 1922 Greek refugees. Nothing new here, either. Your claim is just propaganda.
And did I use the word “racist”? No. I said it was suicidal. Try using facts for a change, instead of posting the same tired old nationalist dogma that has repeatedly failed not only Greece, but many other countries too.