The video depicts a rampage by the Golden Dawn fascist party. The video depicts members of the party visiting a suburb of Athens on the occasion of a Christian Orthodox day of festivity. Golden Dawn party members (recognisable by their black shirts decorated with the party logo) proceed to “check the papers” of the migrant vendors selling goods in the open air fair set outside the Christian church. When they seemingly discover migrant vendors with no, or with false, papers, they attack them, beating them up, destroying their kiosks and smashing their goods. The video ends with a participant to the excursion -and current Golden Dawn MP- explaining the rationale of the party’s initiative. He says: “We are here to honour the Virgin Mary…In parallel, we saw some illegal migrants selling illegally in the fair and the Golden Dawn did what it had to do about this problem”.
The publication of this video has caused a media uproar, although the event itself is far from unprecedented. The video was initially publicised through an official Golden Dawn Twitter account and this has given rise to a series of polemics about the ‘hidden’ relationship of the party with the Greek police. Following the video’s publication, the Greek police has withdrawn all security guards provided to Golden Dawn MPs and most traditional media have adopted a far more alarming stance towards the fascist party.
