Building on the ‘pathological normalcy’ thesis (Mudde, 2010), the paper aims at exploring the ideological relationship between the ‘institutional’ Greek Church and the neo-Nazi ‘Golden Dawn’ party. To this end, the paper explores two interconnected themes: a) the significance of the religious value system within the party’s ideological structure (the ‘supply side’); and b) the religious political discourse as an actor for the party’s growth (the ‘demand side’). The method of analysis employed is the Essex School discourse theory pattern (Laclau and Mouffe 1985). Overall, the paper argues that: a) Golden Dawn has expanded its social influence partly via setting religion as a salient issue for its agenda and as a marker of national identity; and b) the church has not substantially contributed to the establishment of a ‘cordon sanitaire’, due to its longstanding discourse that has operated as the breeding ground for the social legitimization of the party ideology.
