the military, he was arrested again for delivering army explosives to ultra-right
organizations. This time he was convicted to a sentence of eleven months and
twenty days in jail.
Beyond paramilitary terrorist action, the ultra-right at the same time formed political
clusters. One of the organizations operating in schools was “Free Pupilis”, led
by Makis Voridis of the College of Athens, who went on to become a government minister and spokesperson for New Democracy’s parliamentary delegation. However, most of the groups during this period were formed as “research
institutes” and associations of victims of “communist atrocities” with strong
participation among priests, military oicers, university professors and members or even MPs of New Democracy. Quite oten, these covert eforts to regroup neo-fascism were protected by local authorities and networks. Groups of
“political action” were also active, engaging in “the battle of the streets” – that
is, assaulting members of let-wing organizations – while mostly acting and
recruiting within the privileged ield of football fan clubs.
Thus, the post-1974 transition or “changeover” proved to be a slow process, only
gradually completed with PASOK’s rise to power in 1981. The new government’s irst two years were marked by a coordinated attempt to gain control
of the military, the security forces and the National Intelligence Service. The
irst government of Andreas Panandreou tried to avoid a head-on clash with
consolidated apparatuses within the State,instead conducting a “mild” purge
of the military through honorable discharges and taking control of promotions.
Even during those years, numerous ultra-right elements continued to operate
within the intelligence services. Although the police was put under the control of
“democratic” oicers, many solid ultra-right pockets were let intact. Their privileged ield was the riot police, which was created by Konstantinos Karamanlis
during the irst years of the transition, only to be developed and modernized
by PASOK during the 1980s. Deprived of any political culture, fed with fear
of communism and the “dangerous classes”, the police force has had an impressive record of dozens of citizens murdered ater 1974, culminating in the
virtual political assassinations of demonstrators during the in 1979 and 1985
anniversaries of the 1973 Polytechnic School uprising. Such political assassinations have not been an exclusive purview of the oicial State, however. During
the school occupations movement in January 1991, the minister of education
called on the police and ordinary citizens to “reclaim” the schools. Two days
later, in the city of Patras, Nikos Temponeras, a syndicalist schoolteacher, was
murdered by an assault squad led by the president of the local New Democracy
Youth Organization (ONNED).
On a symbolic level, iteen years ater the fall of the junta, “national reconciliation”
seemed to close the breaches created by the civil war and marks the consolidation of parliamentary democracy in Greece. During a period of political crisis,
in the summer of 1989, ater the defeat of PASOK in the June election, a shortlived coalition government of New Democracy and the Communist let passed
18 |
ROSA LUXEMBURG STIFTUNG
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