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Golden Dawn Loses Its Luster as Greeks Reject Militant Far-right

Reuters

   ATHENS - The far-right Golden Dawn party has failed to win a single
   seat in Greece's new parliament, an outcome political analysts said
   reflects a slow improvement in the country's fortunes after years of
   wrenching economic crisis.

   Golden Dawn, known for its militaristic rallies featuring flaming
   torches and Nazi salutes, saw its support in Sunday's election tumble
   to 2.9 percent -- just below the three percent needed to enter
   parliament-- from 6.9 percent in the 2015 poll.

   The conservative New Democracy party won the election and its leader,
   Kyriakos Mitsotakis, replaced Alexis Tsipras of the leftist Syriza
   party as prime minister on Monday.

   Golden Dawn chief Nikos Mihaloliakos struck a defiant note.

   "Golden Dawn is not over, they had better understand this," he said in
   a televised statement late on Sunday. "We will continue our fight for
   nationalism. We'll return to where we grew strong, on the streets, on
   the squares."

   Golden Dawn had been the fourth biggest party in the previous
   parliament, tapping a deep vein of anger among Greeks over
   international bailouts which saw EU and IMF officials dictating the
   terms of Greece's national budgets.

   It also exploited some Greeks' unease about large numbers of migrants,
   mostly Muslims fleeing conflicts in the Middle East and beyond,
   arriving on Greek islands from Turkey en route to western Europe.

   "The element of rage (among Greek voters) is no longer here," said
   Dimitris Mavros, head of MRB pollsters, commenting on the decline of
   Golden Dawn. "Greeks have realized that the system must be fixed for
   the country to move forward."

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