Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta nazismo. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta nazismo. Mostrar todas las entradas

viernes, 6 de diciembre de 2019

Alemania: Oficial del KSK es nazi

Neo-Nazi scandal hits German elite military unit

The Bundeswehr is set to suspend an officer in an elite military unit over suspected ties to right-wing extremism. Two fellow soldiers have also been accused of flashing the Hitler salute.
DW



A new neo-Nazi scandal has erupted in the German military, this time in its Special Forces Command (KSK), according to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

An officer in the elite military unit is strongly suspected of involvement in the right-wing extremist scene, the paper reported on Sunday.

Suspicions arose following a monthslong intelligence operation by the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD). The officer, who has served several tours of duty in Afghanistan, was being covertly investigated by the service after an informant tipped them off to the man's activities.

MAD recommended that the officer be removed from the Special Forces Command immediately and barred from serving in the Bundeswehr. He is due to leave his post this week.

Two other soldiers in the Special Forces Command are also on the radar of Bundeswehr investigators for right-wing extremist activities.

The two men are accused of flashing the Nazi-era Hitler salute at a private party that was hosted by the suspected KSK officer.
Making the gesture and using other Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany.

One of the soldiers was suspended from duty a few weeks ago and is no longer allowed to wear a uniform, Bild am Sonntag reported. The other soldier is still under investigation.

Military has 'responsibility' to remove radicals


Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said the military is taking the cases "very, very seriously" and vowed tough action against extremists found in its ranks.

"Anyone in the Bundeswehr who appears to be a radical has no place in the Bundeswehr," Kramp-Karrenbauer said Sunday during a visit to Kosovo.

She added that the Special Forces Command in particular has a "special responsibility to counter any tendency toward radicalism."

KSK is particularly responsible for rescuing people who have been kidnapped, taken hostage or are facing terrorist threats abroad.

Pressure is mounting on the German military, with numerous soldiers in its ranks accused of right-wing extremism in recent months.

Christof Gramm, the head of MAD, recently reported that they are currently investigating 20 soldiers in the elite unit over suspected links to right-wing extremists.

Concerns over right-wing extremists or neo-Nazis within the ranks of the Bundeswehr heightened after an officer was accused in April 2017 of planning a far-right terror attack that he hoped would be mistaken for Islamist extremism.

rs/cmk (AFP, dpa)

jueves, 7 de noviembre de 2019

Ejército alemán honra a luchadores anti-Nazis

German army honors member of anti-Nazi White Rose

DW

Medical student Christoph Probst was executed by the Nazis for belonging to the White Rose, a clandestine movement that stood up to Hitler. More than 75 years on, the German army has decided to name a barracks after him.



Christoph Probst (pictured right) was a main member of the White Rose resistance group

Germany's military has renamed a barracks in northern Munich after a member of the anti-Nazi resistance group, the White Rose.

The Hochbrück army complex will now be known as the Christoph Probst barracks.

It's the first time a Bundeswehr barracks has been named after a member of the secret group of students in Munich that took on Hitler's regime.


A statement from the Bundeswehr said the gesture was a special tribute "to the active resistance to the violence and tyranny of the National Socialists," adding that the group's brave actions were "exemplary and meaningful in today's Bundeswehr."



Christoph Probst, pictured here on the right, fought against the Nazis with siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl

Probst, 23, was a medical science student who served as a sergeant during World War II in a medical company of the Air Force. He was executed by the Nazis on February 22, 1943, after the Gestapo discovered he belonged to the White Rose.

The organization, founded by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, wrote and distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets that called on German citizens to resist Hitler. Seven of the group's members, including the Scholls, were murdered by the Nazis. The Scholls are remembered still today as a symbol of peaceful resistance to injustice.

In 2012, the main lecture hall at the Bundeswehr's medical academy in Munich was named after Hans Scholl.

The barracks that now has Probst's name houses the Bundeswehr's Central Institute of Medical Service and a branch of the Bundeswehr Hospital Ulm. The Defense Ministry approved the name-change in March, after receiving a proposal from soldiers stationed at the barracks. Probst's descendents are expected to attend a formal naming ceremony at the property on Wednesday.

domingo, 24 de junio de 2018

Bandera nazi en un vehículo militar australiano

Nazi flag on Australian army vehicle 'unacceptable', PM says

BBC





Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has condemned a photo showing an Australian army vehicle flying a swastika flag in Afghanistan.

The "completely and utterly unacceptable" incident took place during a mission in 2007, he said.

Military officials said the symbol of Nazism was up "briefly" before commanding officers intervened, adding that those involved had been cautioned.

It follows intense recent scrutiny of Australia's conduct in Afghanistan.

The photo of the 2007 incident caused anger after it was obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

"It was wrong - absolutely wrong - and the commanders took action at the time," Mr Turnbull told reporters.

In a statement, the ADF said it rejected "as abhorrent everything this flag represents".

The image shows soldiers sitting on the vehicle with the flag hoisted up at the front.

The ABC quoted an anonymous defence source who said the incident had been meant as a "twisted joke", rather than a sign of support for neo-Nazism.

Australia's conduct in the US-led coalition in Afghanistan has been scrutinised following media reports last week that elite soldiers may have been involved in the killing of unarmed Afghans.

The head of the ADF, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, said the "serious allegations" would be investigated.

Australia's operations in Afghanistan are already the subject of a closed-door inquiry, which began in 2016.

sábado, 21 de octubre de 2017

Sigue complicado en Alemania distinguir el pasado

Military history provides traditional dilemma for German army

Germany’s relationship to its military past is difficult at the best of times and the army is now reworking its tradition decree. With soldier and society increasingly at odds, it’s likely to be a complicated process.
DW


New recruits of the German armed forces Bundeswehr take oath in front of the Reichstag

The top generals were there, as were military historians and social scientists. The defense minister sat in the front row.
But as officials with the German Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr, gathered at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam to grapple with the German military's relationship with its past, the discussion turned frequently to those who weren't present — the troops themselves.
The Bundeswehr is overhauling its traditions decree, a uniquely German document that identifies the acceptable sources of military heritage in a country where the past is divisive, especially as it relates to the armed forces. It's a challenging act that involves balancing the political needs of the moment with a rank and file that is developing more emotional ties to their own identity as they deploy overseas.
"Everyone in this room has studied this topic quite intensively," Bundeswehr Brigadier General Kai Rohrschneider, the current chief of staff for US Army Europe, told the gathered academics. "For the troops it's a lot more difficult."

A growing rift

The debate itself points to the growing rift between German society and its military. After a series of scandals hit the Bundeswehr this spring, most notably the discovery of a right-wing extremist officer posing as an asylum-seeker, political pressure was high to rein in what some saw as a military disconnected from the society it served.
 German barracks named after Rommel
The German defense minister wants barracks named after WWII figures renamed
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen broadly condemned the Bundeswehr leadership, which responded by searching barracks for further signs of extremism. Von der Leyen suggested she might rename barracks and warships named after Nazi-era soldiers or commanders, including the famed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.
A backlash quickly followed. Current and former military officers criticized von der Leyen's blanket condemnation. Younger officers voiced their displeasure. The critics were soon joined by public and media commentary questioning the slash-and-burn approach to the past.

Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in army uniform

The confusing boundaries of the debate were embodied in the May removal of a photographic portrait of Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, from the Hamburg university that bears his name.
The portrait showed a young Schmidt in his Nazi-era Wehrmacht uniform [The German army in World War II]. Yet as defense minister, Schmidt was key in preserving some of the most progressive reforms built into the Bundeswehr.
Von der Leyen announced around the same time her plan to have the traditions decree refashioned for the third time in Bundeswehr history.

Looking back — but how far back?

The Potsdam discussion was structured to split German military history around the year 1933, when the Nazis rose to power.
Speakers focused on one side of the divide looked to Prussian military reformers of the 19th Century as positive role models. Others pointed to the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler carried out by a conspiracy of his own officers. Still others pointed to the very creation of the Bundeswehr in 1955 — the first democratically controlled military in German history — as worthy of celebration in its own right.

sábado, 12 de agosto de 2017

Nazis en Virginia

Estado de emergencia en Virginia por disturbios entre grupos radicales

Supremacistas blancos, que habían convocado una concentración, chocan con contramanifestantes
PABLO DE LLANO | El País



Un grupo de supremacistas blancos, en los enfrentamientos de este sábado en Charlottesville (Virginia).

Una marcha de supremacistas blancos convocada para este sábado en Charlottesville (Virginia) ha disparado la tensión en esta ciudad sureña provocando enfrentamientos con contramanifestantes que han dejado varios heridos y un número indeterminado de arrestados. El ayuntamiento había declarado ilegal el acto antes de su inicio. El Gobierno estatal ha activado el estado de emergencia y ha desplegado un fuerte contingente de cuerpos antidisturbios.



Bajo el lema Unir a la derecha cientos de miembros de la ultraderecha racista americana se han reunido para protestar por el plan de retirada de una estatua en homenaje al general confederado Robert E. Lee. El grupo antirracista Southern Poverty Law Center ha denunciado que el acto supone “el mayor encuentro de odio en décadas”. Los radicales racistas han mostrado banderas confederadas, coreando consignas nazis y se han pertrechado con cascos y escudos. Antes del mediodía ya se había desatado la situación de violencia, concentrada en el campus de la Universidad de Virginia. Entre los contramanifestantes destacaba la agrupación antirracista Black Lives Matter.



La situación se comenzó a caldear este viernes por la noche cuando los primeros centenares de manifestantes supremacistas llegados a la ciudad se juntaron en el campus de la Universidad de Virginia, junto a una estatua de Thomas Jefferson, uno de los padres fundadores de EE UU, para lanzar sus primeros cánticos de protesta, con proclamas como “Las vidas de los blancos importan” o “No nos sustuiréis”, desfilando en la noche de Charlottesville con antorchas encendidas.

Un primer grupo de contramanifestantes acudió a repudiar la concentración y se vivieron momentos de tensión entre un bando y otro. La policía tuvo que intervenir y al menos una persona salió esposada del lugar.



La policía estatal de VirginIa se ha preparado para la jornada de hoy con más de 1000 agentes. El Gobierno del Estado ha pedido a los ciudadanos que no se acerquen al punto más caliente, el Emancipation Park. El alcalde Charlottesville, Mike Signer, ha rechazado el acto como “un desfile cobarde de odio e intolerancia”. Hace un mes la ciudad vivió otra jornada similar con una manifestación del movimiento racista Ku Klux Klan, motivada también por su oposición al proyecto de retirada de la estatua del general Lee, que terminó con 23 arrestados.

El movimiento supremacista blanco, conformado por una constelación de distintos grupúsculos cuya presencia es más significativa en estados sureños como Virginia, ha experimentado un repunte de actividad y visibilidad en los últimos tiempos al calor de la controversia en torno a los planteamientos de corte xenófobo y nacionalistas del presidente de EE UU, el republicano Donald Trump.



Ni el mandatario, de vacaciones en su club de golf de Nueva Jersey, ni alto cargo alguno de su gabinete se han pronunciado de momento sobre los sucesos. La primera reacción de la Casa Blanca ha sido, soprendentemente, la de la primera dama Melania Trump, que ha escrito en Twitter poco después de los disturbios: "Nuestro país promueve la libertad de expresión, pero comuniquémonos sin odio en nuestros corazones. Nada bueno sale de la violencia. #Charlottesville".

lunes, 15 de mayo de 2017

Bundeswehr: Cambian nombres de barracas con nombres de héroes de la SGM

Germany's von der Leyen: Rename army barracks honoring WWII-era officers
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has said Germany must rename all barracks honoring WWII-era soldiers. The Bundeswehr has been engulfed in a series of scandals - from reports of sexual abuse to right-wing extremism.



German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday that the military must rename about a half dozen Bundeswehr barracks that still bear the name of WWII-era officers.
The proposal comes as part of the Defense Ministry's latest push for Germany's army to make a clean break with its Nazi past following a series of scandals this year.
Read more: What draws right-wing extremists to the military?
"The Bundeswehr has to send signals both internally and externally that it is not rooted in the tradition of the Wehrmacht (Germany's Nazi-era military)," von der Leyen told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "It needs to confidently put more of an emphasis on its own 60-year history. Why not rename those barracks?"

Among the major barracks named after Nazi-era officers are the Marseille barracks in the northern municipality of Appen, named after the famed Luftwaffe fighter pilot, Hans-Joachim Marseille, and the Feldwebel-Lilienthal barracks in Delemnhorst named after Diedrich Lilienthal, a non-commissioned officer who led a number of the Wehrmacht's anti-tank artillery divisions into the Soviet Union.
Created in 1955 for the defense of West Germany, Germany's Bundeswehr does not consider itself as a successor to the Wehrmacht. However, the German military has this year been plagued by a series of extremist scandals. The most notable incident saw the arrest of a lieutenant who posed as an asylum seeker to carry out an attack on a migrant center.
Last month, von der Leyen opened an investigation into whether there are right-wing extremists in the German military. In a related move, the head of the armed forces last week called for an inspection of all Bundeswehr barracks after investigators discovered Nazi memorabilia in a garrison in Donaueschingen.

Von der Leyen under fire

The scandals have piled pressure on von der Leyen, a senior figure in the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) and a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, less than five months before the German election. The defense minister drew criticism from an army association after she called out the armed forces for supposed "weak leadership." She later apologized for her criticism of the military but also warned there could be further revelations.



The German defense minister's handling of the probe into extremist factions within the military has prompted criticism. Former Defense Minister Volker Rühe (CDU) told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that it was "completely inappropriate and absurd to place the whole Bundeswehr under suspicion of being an extension of the Wehrmacht." Von der Leyen's response to the scandal had created a "distorted picture of the Bundeswehr," he added.
Germany's parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Hans-Peter Bartels, a Social Democrat, said that "the issue of ties to the Wehrmacht and its traditions are now largely behind the Bundeswehr." Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeines Sonntagszeitung newspaper, Bartels said that von der Leyen's probe was merely about excluding a handful "problematic remaining devotees" but that her disproportionate response to the problem had spurred resentment among many soldiers.
dm/cl (dpa, Reuters, AFP)

sábado, 13 de mayo de 2017

Símbolos nazis en barracas del Bundeswehr

Berlin orders barracks to be searched after Nazi-era symbols discovery
The head of Germany's armed forces has ordered an inspection of all military barracks after Nazi-era memorabilia was discovered in two garrisons. The army is probing far-right sympathizers in its ranks.





Bundeswehr Inspector General Volker Wieker (pictured above, center) has instructed senior officials to search all military properties and remove any Nazi symbols, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

According to the mass market "Bild" newspaper, Wieker sent around a memo last week asking army inspectors to hand in an interim report by Tuesday and complete the building checks one week later.

"This examination covers all official properties, premises and offices under the army's responsibility," the directive said.

The move comes amid a deepening scandal over right-wing extremism among some members of the German military.

Wehrmacht memorabilia

The controversy ignited last month after the arrest of a 28-year-old soldier stationed at a Franco-German base near Strasbourg who had expressed far-right views and was said to be plotting a terrorist attack disguised as a Syrian refugee. At his base at Illkirch in northeastern France, officials had found Wehrmacht memorabilia openly displayed in the common room without any apparent effort to remove it.

The Wehrmacht was the name of the Nazi regime's army. Investigators looking into far-right sympathizers in the army later discovered similar Wehrmacht items at another base in the Black Forest town of Donaueschingen in southwestern Germany.

News magazine "Spiegel" reported on Saturday that a display case containing Nazi-era Wehrmacht helmets was found, as well as a room decked out with Wehrmacht memorabilia including pictures of soldiers, pistols, more helmets and military decorations.


'No criminal offense'

A Defense Ministry spokesman said the objects found at Donaueschingen did not include Nazi items punishable under German law such as swastikas. However, on a visit to Illkirch on Wednesday, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she would not tolerate the veneration of the Wehrmacht.

With a federal election less than six months away, the Defense Ministry and the army are scrambling to contain the scandal. Von der Leyen, who is close to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has demanded her generals show zero tolerancetowards any extremist leanings within the ranks.

The minister has sharply rebuked the armed forces for leadership failures, criticizing "a misunderstood esprit de corps" that led superior officers to "look the other way."

"This process of clarification demands courage and tenacity," she told "Bild" on Sunday.

"We must all support it, from the general down to the new recruits because it concerns the reputation of the Bundeswehr."

viernes, 9 de diciembre de 2016

Los nazis alemanes... hoy

Hundreds of Germans are living as if the Reich never ended

The “Reichsbürger” maintain the Federal Republic is a Jewish-controlled conspiracy
The Economist



MANY Germans assume that nowadays it is others, especially Americans, who are prone to conspiracy theories and the rantings of paranoid megalomaniacs. By contrast Germans, forever chastened by a Nazi past, are doomed to boring responsibility. This makes the exceptions all the more fascinating. One is the tiny but growing movement of “imperial citizens”.

The so-called Reichsbürger are convinced that the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) does not exist. In its place the old German Empire endures, which in their telling was never properly abolished and persists in the borders of either 1871 or 1937. There are nearly as many lines of pseudo-legal reasoning as adherents. One rests on the fact that the Allies never signed a peace treaty with Germany after the second world war. Another cites selectively from a decision by Germany’s supreme court in 1973 regarding an agreement between West and East Germany. The upshot, say Reichsbürger, is that the Federal Republic is really a limited-liability company based in Frankfurt and controlled by a Jewish world government based in America.
To the Reichsbürger the FRG’s police, judges, laws and tax agencies thus have no authority, and its documents carry no weight. At a traffic stop, say, a Reichsbürger will overwhelm the (usually puzzled) police with references to phony legal paragraphs and treaties while producing a driver’s licence or other identification issued by the Empire. The insignia vary because it is not clear even to the Reichsbürger who the true imperial government-in-waiting is. There are about 30 rival imperial chancellors, several princes and at least one king. One of the chancellors, a man named Norbert Schittke, also claims the English throne.
Though they draw ridicule even from neo-Nazis, the Reichsbürger are considered part of the extreme right. Many (though not all) are racist and anti-immigrant. Most are male and live in rural areas. Of the four regions that monitor their numbers, Brandenburg and Thuringia, both in eastern Germany, have the most, with several hundred identified in each. Worried about a rise in incidents, a think-tank in Brandenburg recently published a handbook for bureaucrats dealing with Reichsbürger.
The best approach, it advises, is to avoid responding at all. Typically, a Reichsbürger will only deluge a bureaucracy with verbose letters studded with obscure citations. Others get aggressive. Some 20 interrupted a trial this year and tried to “arrest” the judge. The first case of armed violence occurred in October. Wolfgang P., a hunter in Bavaria, had outed himself as a Reichsbürger in the course of disobeying local authorities. When officers approached his house to confiscate his rifles, he opened fire from the upper floor, injuring several and killing one. Locals told the press that the 49-year-old was a loner raised by his grandmother, whose death had apparently unhinged him.

domingo, 8 de junio de 2014

Algunos nunca aprenden: Amanecer Dorado, el partido nazi de Grecia


Canciones de las SS y antisemitismo: la semana en que Amanecer Doradi se volvieron abiertamente nazi
Los partidarios del partido de extrema derecha dio el saludo de Hitler y cantaron la canción de Horst Wessel frente al Parlamento la semana pasada. Helena Smith informa desde Atenas sobre cómo Golden Dawn ha tomado un nuevo tono siniestro

Helena Smith, The Guardian


Los partidarios de Golden Dawn ondean  banderas del partido y nacionales griegas durante una manifestación frente al Parlamento el 4 de junio. Fotografía: REX / LOSMI Chobi

Ha sido una mala semana para la democracia en Atenas. Todo alrededor de esta gran ciudad griega, la política del odio ahora están al acecho. El viernes me dieron un gusto de él en la pequeña cafetería de estilo italiano que frecuento lado de la plaza Syntagma.

Llegó en forma de dos hombres de mediana edad, ambos partidarios de la Golden Dawn neofascista - y, por su propia cuenta, los tenedores de títulos universitarios, muy viajado y bien informada. Durante espressos, comenzaron a participar en una animada discusión acerca de todo lo que es malo en Grecia.

El primero, un hombre de negocios auto-describe ataviado con traje de diseñador, zapatos gruesos y corbata de seda, culpó el colapso económico del país sobre la malversación, la corrupción y la inmigración incontrolada. "La única manera de enseñar a nuestros políticos de inmundicia es traer a la Golden Dawn", que trinó, con los ojos fijos en una mirada feroz. "Estos señores son patriotas, nacionalistas griegos orgullosos, y saben cómo hacer frente a la escoria, los extranjeros que no pagan impuestos, que roban nuestros puestos de trabajo, que se han apoderado de nuestras calles."

Descartando los cargos que Golden Dawn es una banda de delincuentes haciéndose pasar por un grupo político, el segundo - un empleado del gobierno describe a sí mismo - dijo la era de extrema derecha la mejor respuesta todavía a la gran conspiración judía de un sistema bancario más interconectado que ha llegado con la globalización. "No nos olvidemos de todos los maricones y los Judios, los pajeros que controlan los bancos, los extranjeros que están detrás de ellos, que vinieron y follada Grecia", ha insistido. "Los criminales que nos han gobernado, que nos han robado nuestro futuro, de nuestros sueños, es necesario un gran porrazo."

El pasado miércoles Grecia tiene esa sacudida cuando Nikos Michaloliakos, líder de Amanecer Dorado encarcelado - quien está acusado de asesinato y asalto - hizo su primera aparición pública en casi nueve meses. La política del odio se hizo cargo de Atenas como de 58 años de edad, fue llevado ante el Parlamento, antes de la votación para levantar su inmunidad, por otros cargos de posesión ilegal de armas.

Envalentonado por su reciente éxito en las elecciones europeas y locales - en la que el partido surgió como fuerza política tercero más grande del país, gracias a un ablandamiento de la imagen que ha atraído cada vez más creciente número de la clase media - los extremistas llevaron a casa el mensaje de que ellos no sólo eran en el rebote, pero llegó para quedarse. Y como ellos no tenían consideración por la casa de la democracia, injuriaban otros diputados en un despliegue sin precedentes de la violencia y la vulgaridad, no había duda de lo que la Golden Dawn es: un grupo de credo neonazi decidido a derrocar el orden democrático. Porque, lejos de ser contrito, Michaloliakos esposado estaba en el estado de ánimo inusitadamente agresiva, dando el saludo nazi, diciendo al presidente de la Cámara que "se calle", e instruir a los guardias que quitar las manos de encima.

En el exterior, los partidarios camisa negra de la Golden Dawn, alineados en formación militar en la Plaza Syntagma, dio una interpretación abundante de la canción de Horst Wessel nazi - aunque con letras griegas. Todo esto estaba muy lejos de los recientes esfuerzos del partido para distanciarse de la matonería y la retórica racista de la que nació.

"Que la democracia día se sentía un poco débil", dijo Pavlos Tzimas, un comentarista político que ha visto el ascenso de la fiesta desde sus inicios grupo marginal a principios de 1980. Ha visto crecer a partir grupo marginal al partido mayoritario en las últimas tres décadas. "Después de todas las revelaciones [sobre la actividad criminal], después de todos los procesos judiciales en contra de sus diputados, que todavía tiene el descaro de actuar de tal manera, en las escenas de odio que, francamente, no puedo recordar nunca ser visto dentro del parlamento" suspiró. "Golden Dawn no es una fase pasajera, no va a desaparecer con el final de la crisis, se siente intocable, que no teme a nada, y lo que vimos esta semana es su verdadero rostro. No es como otros partidos extremistas en Europa. Es es una verdadera fuerza neonazi cuyo objetivo es utilizar la democracia para destruir la democracia ".

La represión contra la Golden Dawn - desencadenada por el asesinato de un rapero antifascista a manos de un confeso partido de cuadros en septiembre pasado - estaba destinado no sólo para llevar a los delincuentes ante la justicia, pero revertir ascenso imparable del grupo. Al principio, el resumen de los líderes del partido pareció hacer mella en la popularidad de los ultranacionalistas. Por primera vez desde junio de 2012, cuando fue catapultado hacia el parlamento con el 6,9% de los votos y 18 diputados, sus calificaciones bajaron. Pero en una pantalla alarmante de la rehabilitación, los neofascistas ganaron un 9,4% de los votos en las elecciones europeas, el 25 de mayo y, en la carrera por la alcaldía de Atenas el 18 de mayo, fueron apoyados por el 16,1% del electorado, aunque su candidato , Ilias Kasidiaris, luce una esvástica tatuada y agredido dos mujeres políticas de izquierda durante un programa de televisión en directo. En ambos casos los resultados fueron el respaldo más chocante todavía del partido anti-liberal.

Lo que preocupa a Tzimas mayoría no es más que el engrosamiento de debate público, pero la "banalización de la violencia", que ahora está acechando Grecia. "Parece que estamos acostumbrando a ella, y eso me asusta", dijo.

En un clima político explosivo, donde la furia popular es en el punto de casi cinco años en la peor crisis del país en la memoria viva de ebullición, la política del odio tan encarnados por Golden Dawn se está convirtiendo cada vez más penetrante. "A quién le importa si seis millones de Judios fueron exterminados?" -preguntó el hombre de negocios de nuevo en el café, en un aval impactante de esa realidad. "No me importa si ellos fueron convertidos en jabón. Lo que me importa es el sueldo que he perdido, los impuestos interminables me veo obligado a pagar, los criminales que gobiernan este país, la rabia que llevan dentro."

En un estudio mundial publicado por la Liga Anti-Difamación el mes pasado, Grecia en el 69% se encontró que era el país más antisemita de Europa.

"Esta es la explicación más profunda para el crecimiento de la Golden Dawn", dice Dimitris Psarras, autor de La Biblia Negro de la Golden Dawn, que narra el meteórico ascenso de la fiesta. "Grecia tiene profundas diferencias culturales con el resto de Europa. Después de la segunda guerra mundial, que no se sometieron a la democratización real, porque tuvimos una guerra civil [1946-1949]. Y después de que el estado profundo nunca fue purgada [de elementos de extrema derecha]. Incluso cuando era un pequeño grupo, la Golden Dawn tenía vínculos con el Estado griego ".

Fildeo del partido de dos generales retirados en su billete elecciones europeas fue testimonio de esos lazos. Con tres Golden Dawn eurodiputados ahora a punto de tomar asiento en Bruselas, la cuestión candente para muchos es cómo hacer frente a los extremistas. Tras los comicios, el líder del Frente Nacional, incluso de Francia, Marine Le Pen, descartó las relaciones con ellos.

El diputado independiente y novelista prominente Petros Tatsopoulos, a sí mismo el foco de gran parte de la furia de los fascistas en el parlamento la semana pasada, cree que no hay otro camino que el de la prohibición de la Golden Dawn. "Fue un gran error histórico por parte de nuestro Parlamento no deslegitimar Golden Dawn", dijo Tatsopoulos, hasta hace poco un MP con la izquierda radical. "Debería haber sido prohibida, no por su ideología nazi, sino porque es una fuerza paramilitar ... que, si pudiera, sería seguir adelante con un golpe de Estado", dijo a The Observer. "Sabemos cómo funcionan estas personas. El veneno fascista que Grecia está experimentando no es sólo político, está envenenando todos los aspectos de la vida social, la forma de pensar, la manera en que se comportan. Creo sinceramente que los 500.000 griegos que votaron a favor de Oro Amanecer eran muy conscientes de lo que estaban haciendo ".

No fue la democracia en su propio lugar de nacimiento ahora bajo amenaza? "Golden Dawn está en stand-by," él afirmó. "No sé cuánto tiempo va a tomar, pero si esta ceguera voluntaria continúa, si la crisis continúa, será una verdadera amenaza para la democracia en el futuro cercano."