Reinvigorated Spirits of the Past? The Dissident Far-right in Greece and the Rise of Golden Dawn

With the electoral breakthrough in 2012 Golden Dawn entered the parliamentary arena. Deriving from an intertwined net of far-right movements, nationalist parties and neo-Nazi networks, GD took ownership of central issues of mainstream nationalism and militant activism. This brought about submission, demarcation and emulation patterns depending on the degree of the identification with GD, its perceived loss of authenticity and the rejection of oppositional strategies. This raises the question how (1) GD interacts ideologically, strategically and personally with its grassroots fellows and (2) how the extreme right encounters GD’s gradual institutionalization. Based on a mapping of dissident far-right groups, the organizational field of GD will be examined under three paradigms: the rhizomatic structure of groupuscular right, ideological overlapping and competitive mobilization. My paper is set up to embed the party’s rise in correspondence with radical milieus, unravelling changing social boundary mechanisms of far-right resistance facing institutional opportunities and dissident appeals.