ATHENS — The counterterrorism police conducted an unprecedented crackdown on Greece's neo-facist Golden Dawn party early Saturday morning, arresting 10 party members, including the head of the organization, and several of its top leaders in Parliament. A search was continuing for the arrest of more than 20 other members.
It is the first time that members of political parties and Parliament members have been arrested in Greece since the fall of a military junta in 1974.
Less than two weeks after a man who said he had ties to the party murdered an anti-fascist Greek musician, igniting an uproar throughout Greece, Nikos Mihaloliakos, Golden Dawn's leader and a member of Parliament, was taken into custody Saturday morning on charges of forming a criminal organization.
Ilias Kasidiaris, another Parliament member who is the party's chief spokesman, was also arrested early Saturday, along with two other lawmakers, Ilias Panagiotaros and Yiannis Lagos. Also included in the sweep was Giorgios Patelis, the party's general secretary in Nikaia, a gritty Athens suburb that is one of Golden Dawn's biggest strongholds.
The arrests are part of a rapidly widening campaign by the government to clamp down on what it says is a rising tide of extremism in Greece, fueled by a devestating economic crisis. In addition, the government last week opened an investigation into whether sympathizers or members of the group — one of the most violent rightist organizations in Europe — have infiltrated Greek police forces.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who heads the right-leaning New Democracy party, has said he is determined to curb the influence of Golden Dawn, a group whose standing had climbed in opinion polls in the last year and which now has 18 of its members in Parliament. Since the murder a week and a half ago of Pavlos Fyssas, a rapper whose lyrics protested the rise of neo-facism in the country, Golden Dawn's standing in polls has slid. But it is still the third most popular party in Greece, behind New Demoracy and Syriza, the leftist party headed by a political maverick, Alexis Tsipras.
The crackdown is not without risks.
"If they are prosecuted, it might have a boomerang effect among Golden Dawn's followers and voters," Nikos Demertzis, a professor of political sociology at the University of Athens, said in an interview earlier this week. "If you alienate them totally from the political system, alleging that everyone who has voted for Golden Dawn or who likes them should be stigmatized, it may marginalize politically thousands of people," he said.
Earlier this week, Mr. Mihaloliakos suggested that all 18 Golden Dawn members might resign from Parliament en masse, a move that could force a series of elections in areas where the party now holds seats. A government spokesman said such a move would not force a new round of general elections, although the prospect of new elections for those seats could undermine political stability in Greece at a time when Mr. Samaras is negotiating with the country's creditors over further financial aid for the country, on top of two multibillion euro bailouts it has already received.
Golden Dawn is by no means a new force in Greece, but its influence has grown in tandem with Greece's devesting economic hardship. Armed with promises to restore jobs and order, its members espouse nationalistic and xenophobic slogans, appealing to marginalized Greeks in rough areas populated by a rising tide of unemployed immigrants, mostly from Pakistan and North Africa.
Human rights groups say Golden Dawn, whose members perform Nazi salutes at rallies and meetings, has systematically terrorized immigrants, while the police looked the other way. The aggressive acts include the beating of immigrants with clubs and shields bearing swastikalike symbols, or with wooden poles draped in the Greek flag.
Tensions have also risen recently between Golden Dawn and leftist groups. This month, thousands of Greeks protested in Athens after about 50 Golden Dawn members, armed with bats and crowbars, attacked members of the Communist Party, leaving nine people hospitalized with serious injuries.
The police said arrests would continue throughout the day.
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