New York Times
May 10, 2012
Forty-five years ago, on April 21, 1967, a right-wing group of colonels seized power in Greece. Tanks rolled into the center of Athens; politicians, artists and journalists were arrested; and the ensuing military dictatorship lasted for seven years.
Decades after the restoration of democracy, we are again hearing echoes of the junta and its aftermath. Nationalistic slogans are uttered by right and left. The rising phoenix — the colonels’ emblem — has been featured on some candidate posters for the far-right-wing party Golden Dawn, and its leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, has glorified the period. It would be easy to dismiss him as a fringe voice were it not for the fact that his party gained parliamentary representation in last weekend’s elections for the first time. It gathered votes from the traditional supporters of the junta and the political right, but it was also the second most popular party among young voters.
It’s clear that Greeks — derided throughout the Continent as lazy and corrupt, hobbled by the bailout deal’s austerity measures and humiliated by the troika (the European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund) — have put their trust outside the mainstream.
Evangelos Venizelos, the head of the Socialist party Pasok, which until last weekend was one of Greece’s dominant parties, said that this election would be the most important since democracy was restored under Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in 1974. In the immediate post-junta period, the phrase was “Either Karamanlis or the tanks.” The left later criticized the prime minister for his alignment with the West, demanding that he choose between “the people and the imperialist superpowers.” It’s just the kind of logical fallacy politicians have always employed to simplify an issue in times of fear. Recall George W. Bush after 9/11: “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
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