voters, and that police oicers made up about 25 to 30 percent of the voters in each one of the precincts in question, one may conclude that the “pure” police oicers’ vote ranged as high as a shocking 50 percent.26 The trend also does not seem to have been afected by Golden Dawn’s intensiication of racist assaults against immigrants during the short period between the two elections. On the contrary, the 17 June election results from eleven crucial election precincts in Athens show that Golden Dawn again gained between 17.2 and 23.04 percent, virtually the same share as in the May 2012 election in the same departments.27 One may wonder: How did we get here? To foretell in a way our conclusions, we could say that the question is falsely put: a brief overview of the aforementioned deep historical ailiations between Greek security forces and Golden Dawn shows that we did not “get” here; we have returned here. It is the same play, all over again. There have been turns in the plot for the better, like in 1974, 1981 and 1985, but the subsequent periods of inaction in each case have led to repeated renewals of ultra-right inluence. Today, the Greek State has a historic opportunity to shake of what it has long tolerated or even bred inside a service of great consequence to democracy and the rule of law. 5/ THE HISTORICAL BURDEN: THE ULTRA-RIGHT AS DOMINION, DEMOCRACY AS INTRUSION “The fratricidal conlict of the 1940s naturally brought nationalists together with the security forces. This tactic continued during the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, within the so-called ultra-right there were numerous ‘snitches’, ‘stool pigeons’, and informers, and many of them actually believed that they were performing a… patriotic duty by reporting what was going on within the nationalist circles, whether legally or underground. Moreover, the ‘ultra-right’ perception has always been that it is only natural for the security forces to be close to the national ideas…” Surprisingly, these words are not from one of the many letwing Greek historians, but spoken by the leader of Golden Dawn himself.28 The relationship of the Greek security forces with the ultra-right has deep roots and can be explained by the role they have played in a continuum that practically starts during the interwar years and only provisionally ended with the 1974 transition. Already during the years of the Axis occupation, the coalition of interests between a hegemonic part of the Greek status quo and the occupation forces against the “enemy inside the walls” (Michaelides, Nikolakopoulos & Fleischer 2006) led to the creation of the Security Battalions, starting in 1943. This marked a turning point against the developing communist front heading the Resistance. The 26. 27. 28. 28 | V. Lambropoulos, “Police oicers vote massively for Golden Dawn – again”, To Vima online (19.06.2012). See details in http://www.thepressproject.gr/article/19846/. Quoted by Psarras (2012: 177). ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG