This interview is based on Georgios Samaras‘s article ‘Hide and seek: extreme-right leadership and communication tactics behind bars in Greece’
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Golden Dawn made headlines in the early 2010s and its success shocked many as, unlike other reconstructed far-right parties, it did not shy away from its extreme roots. Could you explain why such politics were successful in Greece at the time?
Golden Dawn achieved unprecedented success at a time when socioeconomic deprivation in Greece reached record levels over several months. In 2010, Greeks endured a dramatic fall in living standards as wages and pensions collapsed and the cost of living soared under prolonged austerity measures. A politics of anger, hatred and exclusion struck a chord with voters seeking scapegoats for the country’s economic collapse, directing hostility towards migrants, people of colour and institutions deemed responsible. Golden Dawn capitalised on this atmosphere of uncertainty and emerged as the most successful European neo-Nazi party since the end of the Second World War.
The electoral demise of the party followed the imprisonment of its leadership on criminal charges. Yet you argue that legal repression may not be a panacea to counter far-right politics. Could you explain why?
The party’s leadership has resorted to extreme tactics to remain relevant, but the figure most emblematic of its legacy is undoubtedly Ilias Kasidiaris, whom I examine in my publication ‘Hide and Seek’. The legal system has proved inadequate: despite his imprisonment for leading a terrorist organisation, Kasidiaris exploited procedural loopholes to evade significant restrictions. European states were unprepared for Nazism’s return and were naïve to assume such ideologies would not re-emerge. These gaps in the law are skilfully manipulated to cast perpetrators as martyrs. Kasidiaris is due for release in July or August 2025, and after only five years he could quietly re-enter politics as if nothing had happened between 2012 and 2020.
What wider lessons can be learnt here to help us counter the far right and its capacity for mobilisation from victimisation narratives?
We urgently need robust legal frameworks and a clear and renewed definition of far-right/domestic terrorism. The UK government’s recent designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist group demonstrates a misuse of powers that opens the door to far-right abuse: far-right riots led by figures such as Tommy Robinson remain unlabelled as terrorism, while small, peaceful groups opposing genocide are targeted. To achieve that, first, political culture must shift to address the dangers of Nazism effectively. Second, social-media regulation—which once seemed within reach between 2015 and 2018—must be reinvigorated after years of stalling under political pressure stretching from the US to the EU. Even Keir Starmer has dismissed AI regulation as “woke” and called for it to be relaxed. We live in an era of profound political volatility, and current regulations are wholly insufficient to counter the extreme ideologies now in the mainstream. Ultimately, sustained activism and academic engagement can further inform the policies needed to challenge far-right narratives.
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Dr Georgios Samaras is a member of the RPRN and a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Public Policy at the School for Government and Policy Institute, King’s College London. Previously, he held a Lectureship in Political Economy within the Department of Political Economy during the 2022/23 academic year. He completed both his MA and PhD in Political Science at King’s College London, where he examined the Greek far-right party Golden Dawn. His research encompasses far-right extremism, political communication, and policy responses to illiberal political practices, while also exploring the dynamics of European and US politics and the global rise of authoritarianism. His work has been published in several reputable academic journals, including Distinktion, Empirical Theology, Visual Studies, and Frontiers in Political Science. His forthcoming monograph, Who Rules the Land of Denial?, is due for publication in August 2025 by Palgrave Macmillan and Springer Nature, with a Greek translation forthcoming.
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