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The Far-Right in Lesvos: Ideology and Violence Against Migrants
Sat, September 6, 9:30 to 10:45am, Deree | Classrooms, DC 606Abstract
For over a decade, research on the Greek far-right has almost exclusively focused on the former official far-right party and now designated organization: the Golden Dawn (GD). As a result, the rise, ideological messages and criminal activities of the GD have been well examined and understood but the function of other, equally dangerous far-right organizations has been overlooked. From 2015 to 2020, the Greek island of Lesvos saw an unprecedented rise in vigilante violence against migrants, anti-racist and left-wing activists, journalists and members of NGOs. Newspaper reports and further media have provided evidence that these vigilante activities and attacks were primarily perpetrated by members of the Golden Dawn but also members of the local, municipal party of Mytilene: the Free-Citizens (FC). However, both the phenomenon of anti-immigration vigilantism in Lesvos and the case of the FC party have received no academic attention. This paper aims to provide an insight into the local far-right of Lesvos by discussing the main findings of my PhD study on anti-immigration vigilantism by the far-right in this location. This study is based on the qualitative content analysis of articles published in the GD website and Facebook posts of the FC. This paper specifically focuses on the ideological messages of the FC, examining how ethnic nationalist ideas of “dangerous others”, purity of the nation, conspiracy theories about immigration and the promotion of violence against migrants establish the FC as a radical right party active in the local political arena. The study is also based on semi-structured interviews with victims and witnesses of vigilante violence. The findings of the interviews are presented in this paper as they provide a crucial insight into the involvement of local, national and pan-European far-right organizations in violence against migrants in Lesvos.