Introduction Dimitris Christopoulos 1/ WHY THIS STUDY? A year and a half ago, in October 2012, when we irst decided to conduct and publish this study, the context was diferent. Opinion polls showed Golden Dawn solidifying the support of a double-digit share of the electorate. The police were accused of collaborating with or at best tolerating Golden Dawn. The government strongly denied the problem and did not hesitate to admonish critics who said otherwise. When a major British newspaper raised accusations of oicial tolerance of Golden Dawn1, it was threatened with a lawsuit by the Greek Minister of Public Order and Citizen Protection, who now leads the hunt against Golden Dawn. Confounding standards of rule of law, the judiciary seemed little concerned with the crimes perpetrated by members of the organization. It was not only that cases involving members of Golden Dawn dragged on indeinitely. Greek judges also refused tenaciously to do what they now ind simple: to connect these criminal acts in a comprehensive prosecution strategy. What the authorities have done in recent months, all too easily yet all too belatedly, is to designate Golden Dawn as a “criminal” organization under the relevant article of the Greek Penal Code. The great victory of the Greek Nazi organization had been in the fear it inspired, but Greek society was fearful because the Greek State did not seem willing to confront the issue. Oicial inaction was neither a matter of political neutrality nor a product of bureaucratic indiference. It was in part related to the fact that certain ainities were hard to cover up. Naturally these ainities, within the Greek political apparatus itself, tend to appear to varying degrees and diferent ways. In autumn 2012, when the bishop of Piraeus joined the Golden Dawn vice-chief in a legal iling against “blasphemous” theater actors, some were worried and some protested, but none seemed ready to take serious action, notwithstanding the political parties of the Let and a few human rights organizations. The Church, an inextricable participant in public power, a virtual State within the State, never practically underwent a process of political cleansing during the Greek transition period ater 1974 (the “Changeover”), as the public administration did. As a result, even senior Church oicials traditionally seem to lack any scruple about stating 1. See http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/09/greek-antifascist-protesterstorture-police MAPPING ULTRA-RIGHT EXTREMISM, XENOPHOBIA AND RACISM WITHIN THE GREEK STATE APPARATUS |5