Golden Dawn Is Attempting To Regain A Presence In Greece With A Focus On Northern Greece And Western Thrace

On December 18, 2022, the far-right neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn (GD) publicly reappeared and held a march and rally in Florina, Northern Greece. GD organized the demonstration in response to the approval of the "Macedonian Language Center" in Greece as an official NGO. In response to the GD's march, groups opposing far-right organizations, student organizations, and leftist political parties staged a counter-protest. GD and other Greek far-right have recently been rallying around the Macedonia issue, using it as a political asset. GD has had a cultural and political base in Greece since the 1973 military coup and regime. They try to find a place for themselves in the spectrum of political parties by prioritizing the issues that the majority of the people will be sensitive to during the periods when the mainstream political parties begin to falter. They also spread hatred against the Muslim Turks in Western Thrace and get involved in the Macedonian issue. Their activities in Northern Greece and the Western Thrace are likely to bring more political benefits and visibility than racist and xenophobic actions against migrants and refugees. The Golden Dawn has officially and on paper disappeared from the political life of Greece, but its political, cultural, and ideological legacy is still alive.