title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: For 1991, the Grand Prix Turbo coupe was replaced by a new GTP version. This model sported a 3.4 L DOHC V6 that produced with a five-speed manual transmission or 200 with the optional four-speed automatic. Inside, the GTP was essentially the same as the Turbo. One notable exception was the available optional Heads Up Display only shared with the Cutlass Supreme. The exterior used mini-quad headlamps (along with all other Grand Prix coupes), "GTP Grand Prix" and "24 Valve V6" badges. The STE Turbo was replaced by a 3.4 L STE and could be ordered with the automatic transmission or manual transmission. For the SE coupe, the B4U package featured GTP bodywork and aluminum wheels. An SE sedan also became available and featured STE-like styling at a lower price. The LE coupe was discontinued for 1991.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: Anti-lock brakes (ABS) is optional on all models for 1992, the 2.3 L Quad 4 engine was dropped, and the LE sedan gained the SE/STE front lightbar. Most LE Sedans ordered for rental fleets had full power options. A special edition only for 1992 was "Richard Petty Edition" of only 1000 units. This edition featured a special red, white or blue paint, the 210 hp Chevy LQ1 3.4l DOHC, special badging featuring Richard Petty's signature, special wheel well and ground effects, spoiler, Richard Petty black and white center caps, transmission shift modification which allowed a button for 2nd gear start or normal use, combination locking glove box, blue paint on the inner web on wheel matching exterior paint, and "fan appreciation tour" badging making it one of the rarest Grand Prix ever produced.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: This was the last year of the old-style B4U bodykit. There was a special edition model with metallic green paint, as well as gold wheels and pinstriping. It was also the last year that a manual transmission could be ordered as an option. This was also the last year for the style of the dashboard used 1988–1993.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: For 1994, Grand Prix went through a mid-generation "facelift" inside and out, as well as a reshuffling of the lineup. First, LE and STE models were discontinued. The GT and GTP became option packages on the SE sedan and coupe, respectively. These option packages included the revised 3.4 L V6, sport suspension, ground effects. Outside, there was a new front and rear fascia and new ground effects. Inside, a new instrument panel hosted dual airbags, much larger and easier to use controls, and seatbelts were moved to the B-pillars rather than the doors on sedans only; coupes retained the automatic seatbelt design. Under the hood, the 3.1 L V6 was changed to the 3100 SFI V6 with , while the 3.4 L V6 had . The Grand Prix Sedan also had a slight tail light revision using the amber over red pattern as opposed to the red over amber in years past; however, the coupe's tail lights remained the same. Mirrors on some models were painted in body color.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: For 1996 the center console on floor shift models received a minor redesign. This was also the last year for the BYP body cladding package. The 3.4 L DOHC V6 gained with intake and exhaust improvements. All Grand Prix coupes received a sport package with five-spoke alloy wheels and dual exhaust. This is the last year for the sixth-generation Grand Prix and this is the last year for the 6th generation mid-sized Grand Prix sedan.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: In 1990, work began on a redesigned Grand Prix alongside other W-body full-size vehicles under design chief John Manoogian II. It was the first year for the full-sized Grand Prix sedans. By 1993, a final design was approved and show concept developed during the latter half of 1994. On January 4, 1995, General Motors unveiled the 300 GPX Concept at the 1995 Detroit Auto Show in Detroit. This was a near-exact preview of a redesign for the Grand Prix, due within the 1996 calendar year. In January 1996, the 1997 Grand Prix was unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show. Promoted for its "wide track" appearance and racy styling, this second-generation W-body Grand Prix sold well.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The first 1997 Grand Prix was built on August 12, 1996. There were two trim levels available from 1996; the SE and GT (GT available in coupe and sedan body styles). The Grand Prix came as a base SE sedan, or sportier GT coupe or sedan options, as well as with a GTP trim package—available for GT models in either body style. Coupes and sedans shared similar styling, except for rear doors and quarter panels. The base 3.1L v6 engine on the SE was the only engine carried over from the previous generation. The GT 3.4 L V6 was replaced by a Buick 3.8 L V6. This engine in 3800 Series II form was an option on the SE with 195 horsepower. The 3800 Series II was on the Ward's 10 Best Engines list for 1995–1997. Replacing the Chevy LQ1 3.4l DOHC V6, an Eaton M90 supercharger option was available on the 3.8L from 1997-2003 (also used in the 1996–2003 Bonneville), with compression ratio decreased from 9.3 to 8.5, boosted horsepower to 240. GTP interior trim level featured a "performance shift" button on the shifter that raised the transmission shift points. Front bucket seats came standard, while a 45/55 split-bench seat was available as an option on the SE sedan only.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: Few changes occurred this year, except that traction control now was available with the supercharged engine. Airbags were "depowered" to deploy with reduced force. The tire-pressure monitor was dropped. Also on models equipped with 3.8L N/A powerplants (VIN K), the 4T65E 4-speed automatic transmission was used in favor of the 4T60E previously used. To add some excitement, Pontiac also launched a special pace car model. This model celebrated the 40th running of the Daytona 500 on February 15, 1998. The pace-car replicas had special Medium Gulf Blue Metallic paint, unique "Sparkle Silver" 16-inch torque star aluminum wheels, custom decaling, a plaque notating the specific model number and custom door panels. Also standard was a heads-up display that projected the speed onto the windshield. A total 1,500 were produced, of which 200 were equipped with sunroofs.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: Detail changes marked the 1999 editions of Pontiac's midsize coupe and sedan. New wheel choices were the main visual change this year. The non-supercharged 3800 Series V6 engine gained 5 horsepower (now 200). This was also the last year that the SE model had the optional non-supercharged 3800 V6. GT models received a standard rear spoiler this year. GTP, previously a performance option on the Grand Prix GT, is now a stand-alone model in both coupe and sedan form. The coolant overflow reservoir was relocated from being in front of the intake box to being mounted to the passenger strut tower. Available alloy wheels came in a new 5-spoke design. The one new option was a Bose 8-speaker audio system.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The standard 3.1 L V6, installed in SE models, gained 15 horsepower (now 175) it also gained 10lb⋅ft (now 195). New standard equipment included rear child-seat anchors and an anti-theft system that disabled the starter unless the proper ignition key was used. Pontiac also launched a Daytona 500 pace-car replica, with silver paint, unique aluminum wheels, functional hood vents, a NASCAR-inspired decklid spoiler, polished quad exhaust tips, and Daytona decals. Only 2,000 were planned.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: OnStar, formerly unavailable on the Grand Prix, was made standard on GTP, optional on GT. The SE got revised frontal styling in the form of the GT and GTP front bumper cover in place of the older SE-specific front fascia, standard rear spoiler, and in-trunk emergency release; manual dual-zone climate-control replaced the optional electronic automatic unit previously offered. A Special Edition Package was added this year that could be applied to the GT and GTP models. This package adds the NASCAR-inspired rear spoiler and roof fences, hood-mounted heat extractors, and polished dual-outlet exhaust tips previously offered on the 2000 Pace Car Replica and also adds a two-tone interior, 15-spoke chrome wheels, and the requisite badging. Also available for 2001 were two dealer-installed "75th Anniversary" emblems, to celebrate Pontiac's 75th anniversary, they were placed in front of the badging on each door. A new, yet not very noticed feature for 2001 was added rear strut tower "liners". This prevented common rust of the rear strut towers of the 1997-2000 models.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: New for 2002 was a $2,695 40th Anniversary option package which included the NASCAR-inspired rear spoiler and roof fences, polished dual-outlet exhaust tips, hood with heat extractors, and 15-spoke chrome wheels previously offered with the 2001 Special Edition package. Unique elements such as the Dark Cherry Metallic paint, 40th Anniversary badges, and Ruby Red and Graphite interior trim with the 40th Anniversary logo embroidered on the front seats and floormats differentiated this option package from the previous year's offering.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: One 40th Anniversary Sedan was further customized with a lowering package, different wheels, and exhaust for SEMA and featured in Hot Rod Magazine as the GP40. The lowering package, provided by GM Accessories, consisted of new front and rear adjustable springs, adjustable front and rear dampers and Z-rated tires mounted on forged aluminum wheels. GM Accessories also provided performance brake pads, drilled and slotted brake rotors (front and rear), a cat-back exhaust system, and a low-restriction air filter. The SE gained standard cruise control and dual-zone climate control, and GTs got a standard power driver's seat and CD player. This was the last year of the two-door coupe. The SE model can be identified by a single exhaust pipe and different rear bumper cover. OnStar was now an option on the GTP.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: Pontiac dropped the coupe version (2-door) for 2003 and made anti-lock brakes and traction control optional instead of standard on most of the remaining sedans. The Limited Edition option package was offered for GT and GTP models made this year. This optional package consisted of unique blue-tinted glass fog light lenses, "Limited Edition" badging, carbon fiber instrument cluster, two-tone cloth/leather interior, and a raised spoiler resembling the original GT/GTP/SE spoiler set atop three aerodynamic pillars. Production ceased in February 2003 and was the last GM car to have an analog odometer.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) gives the 1997–2003 Grand Prix an "Acceptable" overall score for their frontal impact test.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: In March 2008, GM announced a recall on all 1997–2003 Grand Prix GTP models (as well as sister car Buick Regal GS) due to a problem that causes fires in the engine compartment. Over 230 fires were reported. This recall affected over 200,000 vehicles equipped with the supercharged 3800 Series II engine. GM sent a letter to the owners of these vehicles on March 13, 2008, instructing them not to park in garages or carports until the problem was resolved. The recall for the Supercharged engine involved changing the left (front) valve cover gasket, as oil leaks onto the exhaust manifold may cause engine fires. Some believed this recall did not fix the fire problem, and instead the problem is likely faulty fuel rail quick disconnect o-rings. There have been reports of fires happening after the recall has been performed.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: In April 2009, the recall already posted for the Supercharged iterations of the 3800 Series II was expanded to cover all 3800 Series II engine-equipped vehicles after many fires were reported with Grand Prix GT and 3.8 L equipped SE versions, as well as the sister car Buick Regal LS. The recall for the non-supercharged V6 was to remove the front spark plug retainer and a valve cover gasket is not changed on non-supercharged 3.8 engines. The recall covered nearly 1.5 million vehicles.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: In October 2015, GM announced a third recall for the 3800 V6 engines (RPO L26, L32, L36, and L67). This recall covers nearly 1.4 million vehicles including the 1997-2004 Pontiac Grand Prix. As of October 27, 2015, there is no remedy for this recall.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: As of May 2008, Grand Prixs from the model years of 01-03 that were outfitted with OnStar cannot be activated due to outdated technology. OnStar's wireless services are provided by Verizon Wireless, which switched fully to digital cellular communications. Grand Prixs of model years 2001 to 2002 have OnStar systems that are Analog cellular capable only. Some 2003 models may have had modules that could be upgraded to digital-ready.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The Grand Prix was updated for 2004 on a revised version of the GM W platform and was unveiled at the 2002 Chicago Auto Show on February 7, 2002 as the Grand Prix G-Force Concept. The series production version was unveiled at the Los Angeles International Auto Show on January 3, 2003. The Grand Prix came in four different option groups; GT1, GT2, GTP, and GTP Comp-G ("Competition Group").


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The GT1 and fancier GT2 have the Series III 3800 V6 engine, rated at 200 hp (150 kW) and 230 lb·ft (310 Nm) of torque, while both GTPs have the supercharged (Eaton Gen 5 Supercharger) 3800 Series III V6 engine with 260 hp (195 kW) and 280 lb·ft (380 Nm) of torque.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: A Competition Group (Comp-G) package was available for the GTP that included red painted brake calipers (same brakes as the 'standard' GTP), sport tuned suspension, heads-up display (also in GT2 model), 4-speed automatic transmission with paddle-style TAPShift, StabiliTrak dynamic control system, 3.29 axle ratio, performance tires and Magnasteer II. Also, a 10-spoke lightweight wheel was standard with the Comp-G package but could be 'upgraded' to the GTP optional wheel.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The newly redesigned model mostly received positive reviews from critics regarding its distinctive styling, performance, and reliability. Commencing with this generation, the 2-door coupe version of the Grand Prix was no longer an available body style. The timing of the disappearance of the Grand Prix coupe coincided with GM's reintroduction of the 2-door Pontiac GTO. The Grand Prix was offered with an optional head-up display.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: A 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GT2 "Special Edition" was also offered in very limited supply, this model included special chrome spoke wheels, heated leather seats, the Monsoon sound system, and the heads-up display. This Special Edition has the Pontiac SE name badging on the side of the car just behind the front wheels.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The Grand Prix remained basically unchanged from 2004, with the GT, GTP, and the new GXP. The GT had the naturally aspirated 3.8 L V6, with the GTP having the 3.8 L V6 with supercharger. The Comp-G package was still available for the GTP with an added door emblem denoting the Comp-G package. When the GXP debuted later in the 2005 model year, the Competition Group was dropped, but several features were retained in a Sport package available on the GTP for the rest of that model year.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The GXP powerplant is the LS4 V8, a 5.3 L Displacement on Demand (active fuel management) engine based on the LS1 block. Output of this version is 303 hp (226 kW)/323 lb·ft (438 N·m). It has a shortened crankshaft, and a host of other modifications to make it fit into a front-wheel-drive vehicle. The GXP also has a 4-speed automatic transmission with paddle-style TAPshift, heads-up display, vented cross drilled brakes with PBR calipers, performance tuned suspension with Bilstein gas-charged struts (sits about lower than other GP models), Magnasteer II, and StabiliTrak dynamic control system. Also, the DIC will display G-Force (maximum achieved for lateral, acceleration, and deceleration) information when the car is not moving. Cosmetically, the GXP differs from the other models with more aggressive bodywork including a different front clip, wheel well cooling vents on the front fenders, a different rear bumper, and twin-dual polished exhaust. The Grand Prix GXP also offers a unique feature of the different-width polished Alcoa forged aluminum wheels. The front wheels are wide, and the rear wheels are wide.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: For 2006, a "Special Edition" body package was added which came with a body-colored SPO grille, new front and rear "diffuser" type bumpers, lower side skirts, and wheels. The three options are the Grand Prix, powered by the 3800 Series III V6, the GT, now powered by the 3800 Series III Supercharged V6, and the GXP, powered by the LS4 V8. The GTP designation was discontinued from the Grand Prix line and applied as the top trim of the G6. All General Motors 3.8 L Buick V6 powered cars become the first SULEV compliant vehicles. That model year gave it the car's final update by adding GM badges near the front doors until the Grand Prix was pulled from Pontiac's lineup after 2008.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: For the 2007 model year the model remained Base, GT, and GXP. Also, the active displacement management capability on the 5.3 L V8 (GXP) was renamed to "Active Fuel Management" from "Displacement on Demand", while the GXP trim includes a V8 engine with a firmer suspension, performance tires, heated leather seats, a heads-up display, and wheels.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: 2008 was the Pontiac Grand Prix's last year as the sedan. For 2008, Pontiac did not offer the GT trim, but continued to offer both a base and GXP trim. The base trim is offered with a V6 engine and wheels. Several new colors were also added for the 2008 model year.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The Pontiac Grand Prix was replaced by the G8 for the 2008–2009 model year. Production of the larger G8, however, ended in June 2009. The Pontiac brand was dissolved in 2010 as part of GM's Chapter 11 reorganization.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: The IIHS gives the Grand Prix a "Good" overall score in the frontal impact test and a "Marginal" overall score for models equipped with side curtain airbags in the side impact test.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: During the first generation of the model line, the Pontiac Grand Prix was offered through GM of Canada under several brand names, styled slightly different from its U.S. namesake.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: In 1964, GM of Canada offered a de luxe version of the popular Pontiac Parisienne with the 1964 U.S. Grand Prix grille, the Parisienne Custom Sport. It was available as a hardtop coupe or convertible, and was basically equivalent to the Chevrolet Impala Super Sport.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: For 1966, the Parisienne Custom Sport was replaced with the Pontiac Grande Parisienne, which featured the unique American Grand Prix front fascia (complete with hidden headlights in 1967-68). Unlike the U.S. car, the hardtop coupe was marketed alongside a convertible and four-door hardtop. The 4-door and convertible versions had the same roofline as the standard Pontiacs while the coupe got the distinctive U.S. Grand Prix body styling.


title: Pontiac Grand Prix

text: Unlike the Grand Prix, the Grande Parisienne featured "Pontiac" badges in the grille. Following the shift of the Grand Prix from the full-size to the intermediate line for 1969, the Grande Parisienne was repackaged as a premium model of the full-size Parisienne. All full-sized Canadian Pontiacs used Chevrolet drivetrains with Pontiac-styled fascias and instrument panels.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis (, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Greek Minister of Finance from January to July 2015 under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He has been Secretary-General of MeRA25, a left-wing political party, since he founded it in 2018. A former member of Syriza, Varoufakis was a member of the Hellenic Parliament for Athens B from January to September 2015; he regained a parliamentary seat in July 2019.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis was born in Athens in 1961. He studied mathematics and economics at the University of Birmingham and the University of Essex, where he obtained a PhD in economics. He then taught economics in the United Kingdom and then at the University of Sydney, before returning to Greece in 2000 to teach at the University of Athens.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In January 2015, Varoufakis was appointed Greek Minister of Finance. He led negotiations with Greece's creditors during the government-debt crisis. However, he failed to reach an agreement with the European troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund) leading to the 2015 bailout referendum. The referendum rejected the troika bailout terms, and the day afterwards Varoufakis resigned as Minister of Finance, being replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos. On 24 August, Varoufakis voted against the third bailout package; in the ensuing September snap election, he did not stand for reelection. Varoufakis has since appeared in numerous debates, lectures and interviews. In February 2016, he launched the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) and subsequently backed a Remain vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. In March 2018, he founded MeRA25, the "electoral wing" of DiEM25 in Greece. In the 2019 legislative election, MeRA25 was the sixth most voted-for party, amassing nine parliamentary seats, with Varoufakis himself returning to the Hellenic Parliament.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis's father, Georgios Varoufakis, was an Egyptiote Greek (but ultimately originating from Rethymno in Crete) who emigrated from Cairo to Greece in the 1940s, arriving in the midst of the Greek Civil War. One day, he was "roughed up" by the police and asked to sign a denunciation of communism. In response, he said: "Look I am not a Buddhist, but I would never sign a denunciation of Buddhism". He therefore ended up spending several years imprisoned on the island of Makronisos, which was used for the political re-education of people who fought on the communist side in the war. After being released in 1950, he completed his university studies and found employment as the personal assistant to the owner of Halyvourgiki; Greece's biggest steel producer. In 2003, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors of "Halyvourgiki"; a position he held until the company closed in January 2020. He died in September 2021.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis's mother, a student at the University of Athens School of Chemistry at the time she met Georgios, abandoned her conservative background after meeting her husband who was, at the time, allied to United Democratic Left (EDA). In the mid-1970s Eleni Varoufaki became an activist for the Women's Union of Greece, which promoted gender equality and had been set up by members of PASOK. By the early-1980s, the couple had converged politically to the same political centre-left views and engaged with the socialist PASOK. Eleni was elected Deputy Mayor of Palaio Faliro a few years before she died in 2008.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis was six years old when the military coup d'état of April 1967 took place. Varoufakis later said that the military junta showed him a "sense of what it means to be both unfree and, at once, convinced that the possibilities for progress and improvement are endless". The junta collapsed when Varoufakis was in junior high school. Attending the private Moraitis School, Varoufakis decided early to spell his first name with one 'n', rather than the standard two, for "aesthetic" reasons. When his teacher gave him a low mark for that, he became angry and has continued spelling his first name with one 'n' ever since.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis finished his secondary education around 1976, when his parents deemed it too dangerous for him to continue his education in Greece. Therefore, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1978 where he entered the University of Essex. His "initial urge was to study physics" but he decided that "the lingua franca of political discourse was economics". He therefore enrolled in the economics course at Essex, but it has also been suggested that he decided to enroll in economics after meeting Andreas Papandreou. After only a few weeks of lectures, Varoufakis switched his degree to mathematics. Whilst at the University of Essex he joined a variety of political organisations including ComSoc (the University Communist Society) and the Troops Out Movement, which campaigned for a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland. He also became involved with the African National Congress, Palestine Liberation Organization, and other organisations such as those in solidarity with Chile. Varoufakis was also elected as secretary of the Black Students Alliance, a choice that caused some controversy, given that he is not black, to which he responded by telling them, according to his PhD supervisor Monojit Chatterjee, "that black was a political term and, as a Greek, on the grounds of ethnicity he had as much reason to be there as anyone else." Varoufakis also took part in student debates, where one of his rivals was John Bercow, who later became the Speaker of the House of Commons.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: He moved to the University of Birmingham in October 1981, obtaining an MSc in mathematical statistics in October 1982. He completed his PhD in economics in 1987 writing a thesis on Optimization and Strikes, back at the University of Essex, where his PhD supervisor was Monojit Chatterji.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Between 1982 and 1988, Varoufakis taught economics and econometrics at the University of Essex and the University of East Anglia, and also taught at the University of Cambridge. He did not wish to return to Greece for fear of conscription, and so accepted an offer to lecture at the University of Sydney, where he remained until 2000. From 1989 to 2000, he taught as senior lecturer in economics at the Department of Economics of the University of Sydney, with short stints at the University of Glasgow and the University of Louvain (UCLouvain). Varoufakis, during his time in Sydney, had his own slot on a local television show where he was critical of John Howard's conservative government. He also acquired Australian citizenship.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In 2000, a combination of "nostalgia and abhorrence of the conservative turn of the land Down Under", led Varoufakis to return to Greece where he was unanimously elected an associate professor of economic theory at the University of Athens. In 2002, Varoufakis established "The University of Athens Doctoral Program in Economics" (UADPhilEcon), which he directed until 2008. In 2005 he was promoted to full professor of economic theory.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: From January 2004 to December 2006, Varoufakis served as economic advisor to George Papandreou, of whose government he was to become an ardent critic a few years later.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Beginning in March 2012, Varoufakis became economist-in-residence at video game publisher, Valve. He researched exchange rates within the virtual economy on the Steam digital delivery platform, specifically looking at exchange rates and trade deficits. In June 2012, he began a blog about his research at Valve. In February 2013 his function at Valve was to work on a game for predicting trends in gaming. From January 2013 he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin as a visiting professor. In November 2013, he was appointed guest professor at Stockholm University, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, to work within game and decision theory at the Institutionen för data- och systemvetenskap (DSV) centre eGovLab at Stockholm University. In 2013, he was appointed the Athens desk editor of the online magazine "WDW Review", in which he contributed until January 2015.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis was elected to the Greek parliament, representing Syriza, and took office in the new government of Alexis Tsipras two days later, on 27 January 2015. He was appointed Finance Minister by Tsipras shortly after the election victory. The party promised to renegotiate Greece's debt and significantly curtail the austerity measures which had led to the longest recession in post-war global history.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: The new government had to negotiate an extension on its loan agreement, due to expire on 28 February 2015. On 4 February 2015, the ECB lifted the waiver affecting marketable debt instruments issued or fully guaranteed by Greece that until then allowed Greek banks to benefit from cheap liquidity. As a result of this decision, Greek banks, already strained by the run on deposits, had to depend on Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), which is, however, significantly more expensive than regular ECB financing. When the ECB raised the provision of ELA very modestly by 3.3 billion euro on 18 February 2015 (when outflows of deposits from Greek banks were reaching record heights), everybody knew that this was an ultimatum: either Greece should strike an agreement within days or it would have to face very serious bank problems. As in the cases of Ireland and Cyprus crises, the ELA was again used as pressure to bring about a quick agreement.Had the EU loan agreement expired without renewal, the European Central Bank would have pulled its liquidity provisions from Greece's commercial banks, ensuring that they closed their doors to the public. Varoufakis led this negotiation at the Eurogroup and with the International Monetary Fund. On 20 February, at the Eurogroup, an agreement to extend the Greek loan "facility" for four months, until 30 June 2015, was struck and Varoufakis hailed it as crucial – because it represented a fresh start by specifying that the terms of the loan would be renegotiated and its conditions would be re-drawn on the basis of a new list of reforms to be provided by the Greek government. That list was submitted by Varoufakis on 23 February and was approved by the Eurogroup on 24 February. On those grounds, Varoufakis signed the official document by which the loan agreement's expiry date was to be extended from 28 February to 30 June 2015 – a four-month period during which a new agreement was to be negotiated.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: This extension was formalized by the third amendment of the Master Financial Assistance Facility Agreement (MFFA), initially concluded between Greece and EFSF on 15 March 2012. The amendment is clear on two things. It changed the expiry date and also required that the €10.9 billion held by the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund (HFSF) to cover potential bank recapitalisation and resolution costs were returned to the EFSF. This sum can now be released to Greece only on request by the ECB (in its capacity as bank supervisor). This means that the first declared goal of the Greek government, i.e. to enter a totally new arrangement and replace the financial-assistance procedures by a “non-technocratic”, political negotiation at high level, was not achieved. The new agreement was an extension of the old one and was governed by the same basic rules and principles. The same happened in the case of the second goal, i.e. to activate a procedure that would lead to some form of debt relief. According to the Eurogroup statement, the Greek authorities reiterated “their unequivocal commitment to honour their financial obligations to all their creditors fully and timely.” At least in the short term, Greek plans for some form of debt redemption, thus, had to be shelved.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Greece, however, won flexibility regarding the 2015 primary surplus target. This would be modified downwards from its previously agreed level to “take the economic circumstances in 2015 into account.” Regarding old measures, the Greek Government had to revise its promise to cancel many of the austerity measures it heavily criticized since 2010 as an opposition party, agreeing to “refrain from any rollback of measures and unilateral changes to the policies and structural reforms that would negatively impact fiscal targets, economic recovery or financial stability, as assessed by the institutions.” In this context, “economic recovery” is broad enough to cover any type of measure agreed upon since 2010. Finally, the agreement endorses the intention of the Greek government to give priority to rule-of-law and state-building reforms by “implementing long overdue reforms to tackle corruption and tax evasion, and improving the efficiency of the public sector.”


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis's view on Greece's public debt, and the 2010 crisis which began as a result of the Greek government's inability to fund it, was that EU bailouts were attempts to take on the largest loan in history on condition of austerity measures that would shrink the incomes from which old, un-serviceable loans and new bailout debts would have to be repaid. Varoufakis argued that the "bailout" loans of 2010 and 2012, before restructuring the debt properly and putting in place a developmental program (including reforming the oligarchy, creating a development bank and dealing with the banks' non-performing loans) would lead to deeper bankruptcy, a great depression and a harder default in the future. His explanation of why the troika of Greece's lenders (the IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission) insisted on these bailout loans was that they represented a transfer of losses from the private banks to Greece's and Europe's taxpayers. In his view, the 20 February 2015 Eurogroup agreement that he negotiated, "was an excellent opportunity to move forward." However, this view was not shared by the Eurozone countries or the wider financial community. The ECB had prevented the Greek Government from raising money cheaply and had also forced Greek banks to rely on expensive ELA funding. In other words, the Eurozone had signalled that 'strict conditionality' would apply and that Greece would face a Banking collapse if it did not comply.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Thus, the troika of lenders did not agree to let the new Greek government change the previous terms of the agreement or to a debt restructuring. Varoufakis claims that, soon after the extension was granted at the end of February, the troika reneged on its alleged promise to consider a new fiscal and reform program for Greece, demanding of the Greek government that it implement the old one (which the Syriza government was elected to re-write). In March 2015, the "Wall Street Journal" pointed to several tensions between Greece and the other Eurozone countries, saying that some countries feel they have taken the "tough medicine" and the €195 billion owed is not insignificant. Further, they stated other governments have philosophical differences with Varoufakis and his Anglosphere and Keynesian leanings. Peter Ludlow said Varoufakis and his colleagues "turned instinctively ... to the U.K. and the U.S. even before they called on the European Left."


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In a discussion with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz on invitation of U.S. economic think tank Institute for New Economic Thinking, Varoufakis stated on 9 April 2015 that "the Greek state does not have the capacity to develop public assets." Therefore, he announced that his government was "restarting the privatization process." However, unlike the former governments they would insist on establishing public–private partnerships with the state retaining a minority stake to generate state revenues. They would also require a minimum investment on behalf of the bidder, and "decent working conditions" for workers. Varoufakis also said that although the government needed to avoid a primary budget deficit, the bailout program's target of a surplus of 4.5 percent of GDP was outlandish and should be reduced to no more than 1.5 percent.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: After many weeks of negotiations during which the Greek government, often against Varoufakis's advice, made many concessions to the troika of Greece's lenders, no agreement was in sight. One reason was that the members of the troika did not have a unified position. For example, the IMF insisted that the Greek government's demand for a public debt restructure should be granted so that their own money could be returned to them while the other creditors ate the loss, while powerful finance ministers in the Eurogroup (Germany's, for instance) refused this because they did not want to eat the loss. Another alleged reason was that, with elections approaching in Spain, Ireland, and Portugal, various politicians within the EU did not want to see Greece's radical new government emerge as successful though, of course, if Greece had succeeded in paying them back their money they would have been delighted. Moreover, the differences in economic ideology- in particular the ideological opposition to losing money- will have contributed to the lack of progress towards a mutually-agreeable solution.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 25 June 2015, Varoufakis was presented with an ultimatum in the Eurogroup. It included a fiscal proposal, a reform agenda, and a funding formula that Varoufakis, his government, and several other ministers of finance sitting in the Eurogroup, considered to be non-viable. The next day, the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, called for a referendum on the Eurogroup's proposal on 5 July.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 27 July, in Brussels, Varoufakis asked for a one month extension. He said, according to his own tape recording of the meeting, 'The question is very simple, there is a proposal by the institutions (i.e. the Troika). The institutions worked very hard to come up with it. We could not bring ourselves to signing it for reasons I have explained, it is up to the Greek people to decide. The suggestion that we’re coming to you with is that a one-month extension is offered of the existing arrangement so as to allow a smooth transition from today to the 6th of July so as to allow the Greek people, in calmness to deliberate, to consider the proposal which is in front of them, and to make a considered judgment on that basis.'


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: The Irish Finance Minister responded by pointing out that a run of the Greek banks and ATMs had begun. The German representative confirmed that there would be no extension. Greece would face a Banking crisis. It was left to Luis de Guindos to turn down Varoufakis's plea for an extension by pointing out that calling a referendum was scarcely a confidence building measure precisely because the gap between the Greek and the Troika's position was bridgeable. This showed there was no 'contagion risk'. Greece was welcome to destroy itself, nobody else would be affected. Mario Draghi and Christine Lagard, on behalf of the ECB and the IMF respectively, confirmed that Greece was on its own though any other affected party could get help. In other words, Greece, simply by calling the referendum, had lost Institutional support; it was on its own.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 5 July 2015, the bailout referendum took place. Varoufakis had campaigned vigorously in favour of the 'No' vote, against the united support for the 'Yes' of Greece's media. To make his position clear, he declared on television that he would resign as finance minister if Greeks voted 'Yes'. The outcome of the vote was a resounding 61.5 percent vote in favour of 'No'. Varoufakis went on television, soon after the result was announced, and declared that the government was determined to honour this new mandate for a different agreement with its creditors. However, a few hours later, Varoufakis resigned. In his resignation statement the following morning he claimed that "other European participants" had expressed a wish for his absence. Later he explained that he decided to resign during a meeting with the prime minister, on the night of the referendum, during which he discovered that the prime minister, instead of being energised by the "No" vote, declared to Varoufakis his decision to acquiesce to the troika's terms. Unwilling to sign such a "surrender" document, Varoufakis chose to resign.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: His explanation, published later by Harry Lambert, "New Statesman", 13 July 2015, was this: "I'm not going to betray my own view, that I honed back in 2010, that this country must stop extending and pretending, we must stop taking on new loans pretending that we've solved the problem, when we haven't; when we have made our debt even less sustainable on condition of further austerity that even further shrinks the economy; and shifts the burden further onto the have nots, creating a humanitarian crisis. It's something I'm not going to accept, I'm not going to be party to."


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In a 16 July teleconference with private investors that was later made public, Varoufakis described a five-month clandestine project he ran as finance minister involving hacking into Greece's independent tax service's computers. The project's goal was to develop a parallel payment system that could be implemented as a contingency plan if the Greek system failed, and was dubbed "Plan B". In it, individuals' private identification numbers were accessed and copied to a computer controlled by a "childhood friend" of Varoufakis.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On Friday 14 August, the government (without Varoufakis) pushed successfully through parliament the third Greek bailout agreement. The bailout bill received 222 votes to 64 (as the opposition voted in favour). Up to 40 Syriza members including Varoufakis voted against the bailout. Just prior to that vote, Varoufakis rose in parliament to offer the Prime Minister of Greece his resignation from his parliamentary seat, saying that this was the only way he knew how to combine his strong opposition to the new bailout with loyalty to the party and the prime minister. On 20 August, the prime minister himself resigned and called a snap election due to the loss of support from rebelling Syriza MPs. Varoufakis had already declared that he was not interested in standing again for Syriza. At the same time, Syriza announced that any MP who voted against the bailout package would not be standing for the party. Varoufakis did not go on to represent Popular Unity, unlike many of his ex-Syriza colleagues, as he considered the party too isolationist. Varoufakis chose not to stand in the election, saying he would focus on creating a European network that would 'restor[e] democracy' in Europe. A month later, the national election was held and despite a low voter turnout, Tsipras and his Syriza Party won just over 35 percent of the vote. Combining with the Independent Greeks Party, a majority was achieved and Tsipras was returned to power.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: The Adam Smith Institute, a leading free-market think tank in the United Kingdom, "enthusiastically" supported Varoufakis's debt-swap plan and asked the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to support it. Varoufakis had proposed debt swap measures, including bonds pegged to economic growth, which would replace the existing bonds of the European bailout programme.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Bloomberg said that Varoufakis was a "brilliant economist", but he had difficult interactions with other politicians and the media. Galbraith, referring to Varoufakis's expertise in game theory, has said that he knows as much about this subject "as anyone on the planet", and that "[he] will be thinking more than a few steps ahead" in any interactions with the troika. Two weeks later, Varoufakis wrote an op-ed in "The New York Times" saying that using game theory would be "pure folly" and that he wanted to "shun any temptation to treat this pivotal moment as an experiment in strategizing and, instead, to present honestly the facts concerning Greece's social economy".


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In September 2015, Varoufakis appeared on the British topical debate show, "Question Time", and was praised for his performance by Mark Lawson in "The Guardian", who wrote: "several of the sentences he spoke in a second language were more impressive than most that his fellow panellists managed in their native tongue." He appeared on the show again in October 2016 and March 2019. He has described himself as a "libertarian Marxist".


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis attended an event in London hosted by "The Guardian" on 23 October 2015, where he spoke about the UK's upcoming European Union membership referendum. He said that the UK should remain in the EU, but also campaign to democratise it: "My message is simple yet rich: those of us who disdain the democratic deficit in Brussels, those of us who detest the authoritarianism of a technocracy which is incompetent and contemptuous of democracy, those of us who are most critical of Europe have a moral duty to stay in Europe, fight for it, and democratise it." He would return to the UK, in May 2016, in the final stages of the campaigning to again urge a remain vote.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 9 February 2016, Varoufakis launched the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) at the Volksbühne in Berlin.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In March 2016, Varoufakis publicly supported the idea of a basic income. On 2 April 2016, in reaction to tension between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the IMF, Varoufakis said there was underway "an attrition war between a reasonably numerate villain (the IMF) and a chronic procrastinator (Berlin)" as to Greek debt relief.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In March 2018, Varoufakis announced the launch of his own political party, MeRA 25, with a stated aim of freeing Greece from "debt bondage". He stated that he hoped the party would be based on an alliance of "people of the left and liberalism, greens and feminists". The party, whose name stands for "European Realistic Disobedience Front", is affiliated to DiEM25.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 25 November 2018, Varoufakis was selected to head the list of Democracy in Motion (the German section of DiEM25) for the 2019 European elections. but he was not elected as DiEM25 lists failed to elect a single MEP.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 20 August 2018, in an on-stage book festival interview in Edinburgh, Varoufakis pressed Jeremy Corbyn, head of the British Labour Party, to "be a bit more ambitious" and become involved in the international progressive movement, saying "We need a progressive international". On 13 September, Varoufakis penned an op-ed piece in "The Guardian" about the need for an international progressive movement, alongside a similar piece by fellow progressive U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. On 26 October in Rome, Varoufakis announced the Progressive International, which was described as a "common blueprint for an International New Deal, a progressive New Bretton Woods". The organization officially launched on 30 November in Sanders' home town of Burlington, Vermont.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: On 7 July 2019, his party MeRA25 passed the threshold necessary to enter the Greek parliament and Varoufakis was re-elected an MP.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In November 2019, along with other public figures, Varoufakis signed a letter supporting Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn describing him as "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsed him in the 2019 UK general election. In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, he signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: Varoufakis is the author of several books on the European debt crisis, the financial imbalance in the world and game theory. He is also a recognised speaker and often appears as an analyst for national news media.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: A film based on his book "Adults in the Room" directed by Costa-Gavras was released in 2019. Varoufakis himself is portrayed by actor Christos Loulis.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In November 2010, he and Stuart Holland, a former British Labour Party MP and economics professor at the University of Coimbra (Portugal), published "A Modest Proposal," a set of economic policies aimed at overcoming the euro crisis.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: In 2013, Version 4.0 of "A Modest Proposal" appeared with the American economist James K. Galbraith as a third co-author. This version was published in late 2013 in French with a supporting foreword by Michel Rocard, former Prime Minister of France. , "Truman Factor" features select articles by Varoufakis in English and in Spanish.


title: Yanis Varoufakis

text: First published in 2011, "The Global Minotaur" constructs a historical narrative and metaphor which Varoufakis uses to describe the world economy from the mid-1970s to the 2008 crash and beyond. He argues that the global economy since the 1970s can be viewed as being built around the financing of the twin deficits of the United States – its trade deficit and government deficit. Varoufakis argues that the United States powered the global economy by consuming the exports of the rest of the world, and then the surpluses flowed back to the United States by going to institutions on Wall Street or being used to buy U.S. Treasury debt. He suggests the recycling back to the U.S. happened naturally due to the status of the dollar as the global reserve currency, and because of the profitability of U.S. corporations and returns on Wall Street. However, when the U.S. economy and banking system faltered in 2008, the United States' ability to consume vast quantities of imports decreased, and investing in Wall Street became a much less inviting prospect, so the system seized up. This explains why the 2008 recession was felt so heavily around the world. The metaphor of the Minotaur is used as Varoufakis characterizes the flows back to the U.S. as a "tribute" to a great power.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The Popular Association – Golden Dawn (), usually shortened to Golden Dawn (, ), is a far-right neo-fascist and ultranationalist criminal organization in Greece. Golden Dawn rose to prominence during Greece's financial crisis of 2009, becoming the third most popular party in the Greek parliament in the January 2015 election. Its support has since plunged, and it failed to enter parliament in the 2019 election. The criminal trial against the leaders, frequently described as the largest Nazi trial since Nuremberg, lasted more than five years.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Nikolaos Michaloliakos began the foundations of what would become Golden Dawn in 1980, when he published the first issue of the right-wing, pro-military junta journal by the name "Chrysi Avgi". In this context, Golden Dawn had its origins in the movement that worked towards a return to right-wing military dictatorship in Greece. Following an investigation into the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a self-identified member, Michaloliakos and several other Golden Dawn MPs and members were arrested and held in pre-trial detention on suspicion of forming a criminal organization. The trial began on 20 April 2015. Golden Dawn later lost all of its remaining seats in the Greek Parliament in the 2019 Greek legislative election. A 2020 survey showed the party's popularity plummeting to 1.5%, down from 2.9% in the previous year's elections, and a peak of 7.0%.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn is commonly described as neo-Nazi and neo-fascist. The group rejects these labels and its members have expressed admiration for the former Greek dictators Ioannis Metaxas of the 4th of August Regime (1936–1941) and Georgios Papadopoulos of the Regime of the Colonels (1967–1974). They also use symbolism which is very similar to that of the Nazis, and they have also praised figures of Nazi Germany. According to academic sources, the group is racist and xenophobic, and the party's leader has openly identified it as nationalist and racist. Golden Dawn has been also described as ultranationalist, they support the creation of Greater Greece, and they have been strongly critical of the European Union. On social issues, they are traditionalist and oppose immigration, and on fiscal issues they are protectionist. They have also used right-wing populist rhetorics and have been accused of antisemitism, anti-Islamism and anti-Turkism.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 7 October 2020, the Athens Court of Appeals announced verdicts for 68 defendants, including the party's political leadership. The General Secretary Nikolaos Michaloliakos and six other prominent members and former MPs, were charged with running a criminal organization. Guilty verdicts on charges of murder, attempted murder, and violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing political opponents were delivered and the leadership was sent to prison.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: After being founded in 1985, Golden Dawn first received significant attention in 1991, and in 1993 registered as a political party. By this time, Golden Dawn had adopted several southern Balkan focused regional objectives as its main programme: to promote the idea of a Greater Greece through the expansion of Greek territory into southern Albania (Northern Epirus), the Republic of North Macedonia, and southern Bulgaria, and ultimately Greece's reconquest of Istanbul and western Anatolia through war with Turkey. They also called to push for the complete Hellenisation of Greek Macedonia and Western Thrace through the expulsion of Northern Greece's last remaining Slavic-speaking minority (or so-called Slavophone Greeks) and the Turkish-speaking Muslim minority of East Macedonia and Thrace that were settled during the Ottoman period (see Western Thrace Turks). They also aspire "to combat Islam in the region", such as through contributing fighters to the Greek Volunteer Guard that helped capture Srebrenica.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: By the mid-2000s, Golden Dawn had redirected its attention to opposing non-European, and particularly Muslim, immigration into the mainly Greek areas of southern Greece and Athens. Golden Dawn temporarily ceased political operations in 2005 and was absorbed by the Patriotic Alliance. The Alliance, in turn, ceased operations after Michaloliakos withdrew support in the spring of 2007. Golden Dawn held its sixth congress, in March 2007, where party officials announced the resumption of political activities. At local elections on 7 November 2010 Golden Dawn got 5.3% of the vote in the municipality of Athens, winning a seat at the City Council. In some neighbourhoods with large immigrant communities it reached 20%.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The party ran a campaign during the May 2012 Greek national elections based on concerns about unemployment, austerity, the economy, and immigration, which gained a large increase in support from the Greek electorate. It received 7% of the popular vote, enough for the party to enter the Hellenic Parliament for the first time with 21 seats. Following a second election in June 2012, this was reduced to 18 seats. As a result of the January 2015 Greek national elections, the party became the third largest in Parliament, despite winning only 17 seats.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In 2015, Golden Dawn outlined their 'National Plan' for Greece's recovery from the financial crisis as follows:


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In December 1980, Nikolaos Michaloliakos and a group of supporters launched "Chrysi Avgi" magazine. Michaloliakos had been active in far-right politics for many years, having been arrested several times for politically motivated offences, such as beatings and illegal possession of explosive materials, which led to his discharge from the military. While he was in prison, Michaloliakos met the leaders of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974 and laid the foundations of the Golden Dawn party. According to the newspaper "Eleftherotypia" the characteristics of the magazine and the organisation were clearly aligned to Neo-Nazism. "Chrysi Avgi" magazine ceased publication in April 1984, when Michaloliakos joined the National Political Union and took over the leadership of its youth section. In January 1985, he broke away from the National Political Union and founded the Popular National Movement – Golden Dawn, which was officially recognised as a political party in 1993.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn remained largely on the margins of far-right politics until the Macedonia naming dispute in 1991 and 1992. The Greek newspaper "Eleftherotypia" reported that on 10 October 1992, about 30 Golden Dawn members attacked students at the Athens University of Economics and Business during a massive demonstration against the use of the name "Macedonia" by the then Republic of Macedonia. Around the same time, the first far-right street gangs appeared under the leadership of Giannis Giannopoulos, a former military officer who was involved with the South African Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) during the 1980s. After the events of 1991 and 1992, Golden Dawn had gained a stable membership of more than 200 members, and Giannopoulos rose within the party hierarchy. Golden Dawn ran in the 1994 European Parliament election, gaining 7,264 votes nationwide; 0.1% of the votes cast.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: During the 1980s, the party embraced Hellenic Neopagan beliefs, praised the Twelve Olympians and described Marxism and liberalism as "the ideological carriers of Judeo-Christianity". The party went through ideological changes later and welcomed Greek Orthodox Christianity.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn members participated during the Bosnian War in the Greek Volunteer Guard (GVG), which was part of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska. A few GVG volunteers were present in Srebrenica during the Srebrenica massacre, and they raised a Greek flag at a ruined church after the fall of the town. Spiros Tzanopoulos, a GVG sergeant who took part in the attack against Srebrenica, said many of the Greek volunteers participated in the war because they were members of Golden Dawn. Golden Dawn members in the GVG were decorated by Radovan Karadžić, but, according to Charis Kousoumvris, a former member of Golden Dawn, those who were decorated, later left the party.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In April 1996, Giannopoulos represented the party at a pan-European convention of far-right nationalist parties in Moscow, where he presented a bust of Alexander the Great to Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky for his birthday. Golden Dawn participated in the 1996 legislative election in September, receiving 4,487 votes nationwide; 0.07% of the votes cast. In October 1997, Giannopoulos published an article in "Chrysi Avgi" magazine calling for nationalist vigilantism against immigrants and liberals. In 1998, a prominent party member, Antonios Androutsopoulos, assaulted Dimitris Kousouris, a left-wing student activist. The resulting media attention, along with internal party conflicts (due to poor results in the 1996 elections), led some of its most extreme members to gradually fade from official party affairs.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Androutsopoulos finally surrendered in 2005 and was convicted of the attempted murder of Kousouris and another two left-wing activists, for which he received a 21-year prison term. The rest of the members of the squad that hit Kousouris were never legally prosecuted. In March 2009, Androutsopoulos appealed his sentence and received 12 years, to be finally released from prison a few months later. Meanwhile, Golden Dawn continued to hold rallies and marches, and it ran in the 1999 European election in an alliance with the Front Line party, gaining 48,532 votes nationwide; 0.75% of the votes cast. In 2005, "Eleftherotypia" reported that Golden Dawn members distributed homophobic flyers during the first pride parade held in Athens.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: According to Golden Dawn's leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the party suspended its own autonomous political activities after 1 December 2005 because of clashes with anarchists. Golden Dawn members were instructed to continue their activism within the Patriotic Alliance party, which was very closely linked to Golden Dawn. The former leader of Patriotic Alliance, Dimitrios Zaphiropoulos, was once a member of Golden Dawn's political council, and Michaloliakos became a leading member of Patriotic Alliance. There were accusations that the "Patriotic Alliance" was simply the new name of Golden Dawn. Activities by Patriotic Alliance's members were often attributed to Golden Dawn (even by themselves), creating confusion. This is the main reason Golden Dawn's members announced the withdrawal of their support of the Patriotic Alliance, which eventually led to the interruption of Golden Dawn's political activities. In March 2007, Golden Dawn held its sixth congress and announced the resumption of their political and ideological activism.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In May 2012, WordPress shut down Golden Dawn's official website and blog due to death threats against Xenia Kounalaki, a journalist.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In 2018, Ilias Kasidiaris, a then member of the party, declared himself an admirer of the Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and added that the only non-hypocritical European countries were those of Visegrad. He asked why Muslim migrants did not go to Saudi Arabia or other Islamic countries, and claimed "We at Golden Dawn want to give priority to Christian asylum seekers. And, in any event, Greece cannot continue to welcome everyone in. If we ever get into power, we will put economic migrants in jail, instead of hosting them in hotspots, as Syriza does." Kasidiaris later left the party in 2020 to form the more moderate Greeks for the Fatherland.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In an article in March 2019, the leader of the party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, concluded that "The only way to stop the destruction of our nation is to fight hard in order to make our Fatherland a national state again, a Greece that will belong to the Greeks."


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: During the 2019 European Parliament election Golden Dawn won only 4.88% of the vote and won only 2 seats, down from 9.4% and 3 seats in 2014. During the 2019 Greek Legislative election Golden Dawn lost all of its 18 seats in the Hellenic Parliament, winning only 2.93% of the vote, down from 7.0% in 2015. Shortly after the elections, one of the Golden Dawn's two MEPs, Giannis Lagos, abandoned the party and refused to hand over his seat, and thus, leaving GD with just 1 seat in the European Parliament.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 8 July 2019, after the election result, the party leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos has made the following statement: "We send a message to enemies and friends. The Golden Dawn is not over. The struggle for nationalism continues. We will be back where we were strong, in the streets and squares, and we will fight hard against Bolshevism and the cruel capitalism that is coming."


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In September 2019, Golden Dawn's headquarters in Athens was closed and dissolved, only two months after the party's defeat in the July general elections. The NGO KEERFA described this development as being "a victory of the anti-fascist movement". The party's website also became unavailable.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In July 2020, Michaloliakos removed Athanasios Konstantinou, Golden Dawn's last remaining MEP, from the party. Konstantinou continues to serve in the European Parliament as an independent.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 7 October 2020, Michaloliakos and six other party leaders were convicted for heading a criminal organisation. The other 61 defendants were found guilty of participating in a criminal organisation. The court described the convicted as a criminal organization "dressed in the mantle of a political party".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The court found Michaloliakos, Giannis Lagos, Ilias Kasidiaris, Christos Pappas, Artemios Matthaiopoulos, Ilias Panagiotaros, and Giorgios Germenis guilty on the charge of directing a criminal organization. The court found sufficient evidence to find the rest of the sixty-eight defendants guilty of participation in a criminal organization. Eighteen of these defendants were former members of parliament.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The court found Anastasios-Marios Anadiotis, Giorgios Dimou, Elpidoforos Kalaritis, Yoannis Vasilios Komianos, Konstantinos Korkovilis, Anastasios Michalaros, Giorgios Patelis (the secretary of the Nikaia Battalion), Giorgios Skalos, Giorgios Stambelos, Leon Tsalikis, Athanasios Tsorvas, Nikolaos Tsorvas, and Aristotelis Chrisafitis guilty of the murder of Pavlos Fyssas. The court had earlier acknowledged the guilt of Giorgios Roupakias.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The party created the "Committee of National Memory" (Επιτροπή Εθνικής Μνήμης, "Epitropí Ethnikís Mnímis"), to organise demonstrations commemorating the anniversaries of certain Greek national events. Since 1996, the Committee of National Memory organized an annual march, usually on 31 January in Athens, in memory of three Greek officers who died during the Imia military crisis. According to Golden Dawn and the European National Front website, the march in 2006 was attended by 2,500 people, although no neutral sources confirmed that number. The Committee of National Memory continued its activities, and a march took place on 31 January 2010.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The Committee of National Memory organized annual rallies on 17 June in Thessalonica, in memory of Alexander the Great. Police confronted the participants of the rally of 2006, forcing Golden Dawn and Patriotic Alliance members to leave the area after conflicts with leftist groups. Later that day, Golden Dawn members gathered in the building of state-owned television channel ERT3 and held a protest as they tried to stop the channel from broadcasting. Police surrounded the building and arrested 48 Golden Dawn members.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In September 2005, Golden Dawn attempted to organise a festival called "Eurofest 2005 – Nationalist Summer Camp" at the grounds of a Greek summer camp. The planned festival depended on the participation of the German National Democratic Party of Germany, the Italian Forza Nuova and the Romanian Noua Dreaptă, as well as Spanish and other European far-right groups, as European National Front's festival. The festival was banned by the government.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In June 2007, Golden Dawn sent representatives to protest against the G8 convention in Germany, together with the National Democratic Party of Germany and other European far-right organisations.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In June 2011, "Foreign Policy" reported that in the midst of the 2010–2011 Greek protests, gangs of Golden Dawn members were increasingly being seen in some of the higher-crime areas of Athens. In May 2012, the BBC reported on how Golden Dawn had become sort of a local 'Robin Hood' in some high-immigration areas of Athens, since the party was developing a social program which included the delivery of food at minimal or no cost to the most unfavored strata of ethnic Greeks. It was reported in 2012, at a time of acute social problems, that the party offered help to victims of crime, which gained it support; police even sometimes referred people who had issues with immigrants to Golden Dawn. Allegiance to the party was expected from those helped.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn, as reported by "Time" in 2012, holds ceremonies at Thermopylae during which they chant "Greece belongs to Greeks" in front of the bronze statue of the Spartan king Leonidas, who fell at the eponymous Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC against the Achaemenid Persians.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn's Youth Front has distributed fliers with nationalist messages in Athens schools and organised the concert series Rock Against Communism. It publishes the ultranationalist magazine "Resistance Hellas-Antepithesi". The magazine is a sister publication of the United States-based National Alliance's "Resistance" magazine.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In May 2009, Golden Dawn took part in the European elections and received 23,564 votes, 0.5% of the total votes. In 2010 it won 5.3% of the vote in Athens. In that election, the party won its first municipal council seat and entered parliament for the first time in 2012. In the Greek parliamentary elections of May 2012, the party received 6.97% of the popular vote. In the rerun of the elections in June 2012, their share of the vote was 6.92%. This made them the third largest group from Greece to the European Parliament (the largest was Syriza's alliance).


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: One representative elected in 2019, Ioannis Lagos, left the party later that year. The other, Athanasios Konstantinou, was expelled from the party in July 2020.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Members of Golden Dawn have been accused of carrying out acts of violence and hate crimes against immigrants, political opponents, homosexuals and ethnic minorities. Golden Dawn's offices have been attacked repeatedly by anarchists and other leftists, and clashes between members of Golden Dawn and leftists have not been unusual.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In 2000, unknown suspects vandalized the Monastirioton synagogue, a memorial for Holocaust victims, and Jewish cemeteries in Thessaloniki and Athens. There were claims that Golden Dawn's symbols were present at all four sites. The "KIS", the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, the Coalition of the Left, of Movements and Ecology, the Greek Helsinki Monitor and others issued statements condemning these acts. The Cyprus chapter of Golden Dawn has been accused of attacks against Turkish Cypriots, and one member was arrested for attacking Turkish Cypriots in 2005.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 6 October 1999, during a football match between Greece and Albania in Athens, Albanian supporters burnt a Greek flag in their stand. This act was captured and broadcast extensively by the Greek media, leading to a series of angry reactions by Greek nationalists against foreign immigrants. In a specific case, on the night of 22 October, Pantelis Kazakos, a nationalist and a member of the Golden Dawn, said he felt "insulted by the burning of the Greek flag" and shot and killed two people and wounded seven others in an attack in central Athens. All of the victims were immigrants, and four of the wounded remain paralysed. Other Golden Dawn members, feeling also "insulted by the burning of the Greek flag", formed the hooligan firm "Galazia Stratia" (Greek for "Blue Army"). It has described itself as a "fan club of the Greek national teams" and its goal as "to defend Greek national pride inside the stadiums." It has been reported that following Golden Dawn's official disbandment in 2005, many former party members have put most of their energy into promoting "Galazia Stratia". "Galazia Stratia" is closely linked to Golden Dawn, and the two groups shared the same street address. Golden Dawn made no attempt to deny the connections, openly praising the actions of "Galazia Stratia" in its newspaper, and accepting praise in return from the firm.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: "Galazia Stratia" and Golden Dawn have been accused of various acts of sports-related violence. In September 2004, after a football match between Greece and Albania in Tirana (which Greece lost 2–1), Albanian immigrants living in Greece went out on the streets of Athens and other cities to celebrate the victory. Greek hooligans felt provoked by this and violence erupted against Albanian immigrants in various parts of Greece, resulting in the murder of an Albanian in Zakynthos and many others being injured. Golden Dawn and "Galazia Stratia" were proven to be directly responsible for many of the attacks. According to "Eleftherotypia", "Galazia Stratia" members severely assaulted a Palestinian and a Bangladeshi during celebrations following the success of the Greece men's national basketball team at the 2006 FIBA World Championship.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Antonios Androutsopoulos (aka "Periandros"), a prominent member of Golden Dawn, was a fugitive from 1998 to 14 September 2005 after being accused of the attempted murder on 16 June 1998 of three left-wing students – including Dimitris Kousouris, who was badly injured. Androutsopoulos had been sentenced "in absentia" to four years of prison for illegal weapon possession while the attempted murder charges against him were still standing.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The authorities' failure to apprehend Androutsopoulos for seven years prompted criticism by the Greek media. An article in "Ta Nea" claimed that Periandros remained in Greece and evaded arrest because of his connections with the police. In an interview in 2004, Michalis Chrisochoidis, the former minister of public order and a member of PASOK, claimed that such accusations were unfounded, and he blamed the inefficiency of the Greek police. Some allege that Androutsopoulos had evaded arrest because he had been residing in Venezuela until 2005 when he turned himself in. His trial began on 20 September 2006, and he was convicted on 25 September 2006; he was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Golden Dawn members were present at his trial, shouting nationalist slogans; he reportedly hailed them using the Nazi salute. He was released after serving 3/5 of the sentence.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 2 February 2008, Golden Dawn planned to hold the annual march for the twelfth anniversary of the Imia military crisis. Anti-fascist groups organised a protest in order to cancel the march, as a response to racist attacks allegedly caused by Golden Dawn members. Golden Dawn members occupied the square in which the march was to take place, and when anti-fascists showed up, clashes occurred. During the riots that followed, Golden Dawn members were seen attacking the anti-fascists with riot police doing nothing to stop them and actually letting them pass through their lines. This led to two people being stabbed and another two wounded by rocks. There were allegations that Golden Dawn members even carried police equipment with them and that Golden Dawn's equipment was carried inside a police van.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 7 September 1993, a bomb exploded at Golden Dawn's offices. The attack was attributed to the far-left terrorist organization Revolutionary People's Struggle (ELA).


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In November 2005, Golden Dawn's offices were attacked by a group of anarchists with molotov cocktails and stones. There were gunshots, and two people (who claimed that they were just passing by) were injured. According to Golden Dawn, three suspects were arrested and set free. During the subsequent police investigation, leftovers from molotov cocktails were discovered in Golden Dawn's offices. Golden Dawn has stated that this was the reason for the organisation's disbandment.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 19 March 2010, a bomb described by police as of "moderate power" was detonated in the fifth floor office of Golden Dawn, in downtown Athens. Twenty-five minutes prior to the blast, an unidentified caller contacted a local newspaper in order to announce the attack. The targeted building and the surrounding area were evacuated in response. The explosion caused substantial property damage but no casualties. The office reopened on 10 April 2010. The responsibility for the attack claimed by the anarchist terrorist organization Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 4 December 2012, a makeshift bomb containing dynamite exploded at Golden Dawn's office building in Aspropyrgos, a suburb of Athens. The explosion caused significant damage to two floors but produced no casualties.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 13 February 2013, an improvised bomb exploded in the regional office of Golden Dawn in Piraeus. The explosion and the subsequent fire caused material damage. Next morning a similar improvised bomb exploded outside the offices of Golden Dawn in the city of Larissa, central Greece. The explosion caused only material damage.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 7 June 2012, Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris slapped Communist MP Liana Kanelli three times during a live debate on the morning show "Proino ANT1" after she hit him with a newspaper for throwing a glass of water at SYRIZA MP Rena Dourou after she brought up his alleged involvement in an armed robbery; Kanelli had also thrown verbal abuse at him during the previous commercial break. Kasidiaris was subsequently locked in a room by the staff of the ANT1 TV station, but he knocked down the door and left. Greek prosecutors issued an arrest warrant. Golden Dawn blamed Kanelli for the incident. The incident resulted in several protests against Golden Dawn in Athens and other Greek cities. Political analyst Theodore Couloumbis told Reuters that the incident could cost Golden Dawn votes, especially among women, though other experts were of the opinion that images of violence could play in their favour—a Facebook page dedicated to Kasidiaris picked up 6,000 'likes' within 24 hours.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In September 2013, a 35-year-old man confirmed to have had ties to Golden Dawn was arrested for murder after hip-hop artist Pavlos Fyssas, known as Killah P, was stabbed twice following a brawl in Piraeus. The police later raided Golden Dawn offices in Athens. The party denied any connections to the murder. An ongoing investigation has since confirmed that the man was in contact with party members prior to and at the time of the murder. A subsequent police crackdown led to raids on Golden Dawn offices and the arrests of several party members, including party leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos, who was imprisoned as a result of owning the office phone to which a telephone call, alleged to be associated with the murder, was received.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 1 November 2013, Golden Dawn members Giorgos Fountoulis and Manos Kapelonis were shot dead outside the party's offices in Neo Irakleio, a northern suburb of Athens. A third, Alexandros Gerontas, was severely injured. Police described the event as a terrorist attack. Two weeks later, the anarchist terrorist group "The Fighting People's Revolutionary Powers" claimed responsibility for what it described as the "political executions of the fascist members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: During April, supporters were present in Piraeus, where they came into conflict with supporters of refugees, and additionally in Chios, where they fought with police from Athens, after having attacked migrants and refugees there.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In an interview with "Eleftherotypia" in 1998, Minister for Public Order Georgios Romaios (PASOK) alleged the existence of "fascist elements in the Hellenic Police", and vowed to suppress them. In a TV interview that same year, Romaios again claimed that there was a pro-fascist group within the police force, although he said it was not organized and was only involved in isolated incidents. The same year, "Eleftherotypia" published an article which outlined connections between the police and neo-fascism. Dimitris Reppas, the PASOK government spokesman, strongly denied such connections. However, the article quoted a speech by the PASOK Member of Parliament Paraskevas Paraskevopoulos about a riot caused by right-wing extremists, in which he said:


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In Thessaloniki it is widely discussed that far-right organisations are active in the security forces. Members of such organisations were the planners and chief executioners of the riot and nobody was arrested. A Special Forces officer, speaking at a briefing of Special Forces policemen who were to be on duty that day, told the policemen not to arrest anyone because the rioters were not enemies and threatened that should this be overlooked there would be penalties.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Before the surrender of Androutsopoulos, an article in the newspaper "Ta Nea" claimed that Golden Dawn had a close relationship with elements of the Greek police force. In relation to the Periandros case, the article quoted an unidentified police officer who said that "half the force wanted Periandros arrested and the other half didn't". The article claimed that there was a confidential internal police investigation which concluded that:


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The newspaper published a photograph of a typewritten paragraph with no identifiable insignia as evidence of the secret investigation. The Minister for Public Order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, responded that he did not recollect such an investigation. Chrysochoidis also denied accusations that far-right connections within the police force delayed the arrest of Periandros. He said that leftist groups, including the ultra-left anti-state resistance group 17 November, responsible for several murders, had similarly evaded the police for decades. In both cases, he attributed the failures to "stupidity and incompetence" by the force.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In more recent years, anti-fascist and left-wing groups have claimed that many of Golden Dawn's members have close relationships or collaborated with Greece's Central Intelligence Service (KYP), the predecessor to the National Intelligence Service, and accused Michaloliakos of working for the KYP from the 1980s. One piece of evidence for this, published in a Greek newspaper, was a payslip showing the names of both Michaloliakos and Konstantinos Plevris as operating for the agency, which Golden Dawn claimed was a forgery. The "payslip", which was supposedly "signed" by a "Hellenic army's officer", was a fake, as was proven in court after Golden Dawn's complaint.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In July 2012, it was reported that Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, had placed the alleged ties of Greek police and Golden Dawn under scrutiny, following reports of the Greek state's continued failure to acknowledge the problem. In an interview he gave on 2 February 2013 to "Ta Nea", Muižnieks stated that he had collected strong evidence of ties between the police and the party. According to the political analyst Paschos Mandravelis, "A lot of the party's backing comes from the police, young recruits who are apolitical and know nothing about the Nazis or Hitler. For them, Golden Dawn supporters are their only allies on the frontline when there are clashes between riot police and leftists."


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: After the Greek Parliamentary elections of 6 May 2012, it became known that more than one out of two Greek police officers voted for Golden Dawn in some districts. Polling stations surrounding the Attica General Police Directorate in the Athens A constituency, where on-duty police officers are known to have voted, reported slightly more than 20% support for the party, whereas "civilian" polling stations in the constituency reported support of around 6%. The total percentage of Golden Dawn votes in Athens A was 7.8%. A police official stated that support for the party was high and growing among the police, as well as in the branches of the military.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The party is regularly described as neo-Nazi by news media and academic sources, and members are frequently responsible for anti-semitic graffiti.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The party denies that it has any official connection to neo-Nazism. Although it uses the Nazi salute, a salute used by the Italian Fascist and German Nazi movements, it claims to draw its inspiration in this primarily from the 4th of August Regime established by Ioannis Metaxas, the Greek nationalist leader and dictator, whose National Youth Organization (and later, his entire government) adopted upon taking power. Ioannis Metaxas was the dictator of Greece from 1936 to 1941, when he died.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: The Golden Dawn's meander symbol (which the party sees as representing bravery and eternal struggle), while based on the traditional "Greek key", is seen as "closely resembling a swastika". Both the Golden Dawn symbol and Hitler's NSDAP flag can be described as a meander of black straight lines with right angles (Greek key or swastika) with a white border on a red background.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Ilias Kasidiaris, a spokesman for Golden Dawn, wrote an article that was published in Golden Dawn magazine on 20 April 2011, in which he said, "What would the future of Europe and the whole modern world be like if World War II hadn't stopped the renewing route of National Socialism? Certainly, fundamental values which mainly derive from ancient Greek culture, would be dominant in every state and would define the fate of peoples. Romanticism as a spiritual movement and classicism would prevail against the decadent subculture that corroded the white man. Extreme materialism would have been discarded, giving its place to spiritual exaltation". In the same article, Adolf Hitler is characterized as a "great social reformer" and "military genius".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In an article published in 1987 in the Golden Dawn magazine titled "Hitler for 1,000 years", its editor Michaloliakos showed his support for Nazism and white supremacy. Specifically he wrote, "We are the faithful soldiers of the National Socialist idea and nothing else" and "[...] WE EXIST, and continue the battle, the battle for the final victory of our race". He ends the article by writing "1987, 42 years later, with our thought and soul given to the last great battle, with our thought and soul given to the black and red banners, with our thought and soul given to the memory of our great Leader, we raise our right hand up, we salute the Sun and with the courage, that is compelled by our military honor and our National Socialist duty we shout full of passion, faith to the future and our visions: HEIL HITLER!". Furthermore, he uses capital letters for pronouns referring to Hitler ("by Himself", "His people").


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 17 August 1987, Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party, committed suicide in Spandau Prison. The following day Golden Dawn members distributed proclamations in the center of Athens with the phrase "Rudolf Hess Immortal" ().


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In pictures taken during the first congress of Golden Dawn in February 1990, the congress hall is decorated with the swastika and the Wolfsangel.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: There are many cases in which Golden Dawn members have appeared to give a Nazi salute. The founder of the party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, appeared to give a Nazi salute in the Athens city council. He claims that it was merely "the salute of the national youth organisation of Ioannis Metaxas".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In May 2012, Golden Dawn ran in Greek elections under the slogan "So we can rid this land of filth". During his post-election statement the leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, had placed a marble eagle on an obvious position on his desk, which was reported to be similar to the eagle of the Nazi Third Reich. After the elections, Eleni Zaroulia, a Golden Dawn MP, wore an iron cross ring during her inauguration, a symbol which has been associated with Nazism. In a picture taken on 14 September 2012, Panagiotis Iliopoulos, another Golden Dawn MP, has a tattoo of the Nazi salute "Sieg Heil".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: On 23 July 2012, Artemis Matthaiopoulos, a member of Golden Dawn, was elected as MP for the town of Serres. The website left.gr (associated with Syriza) reported that Matthaiopoulos was the frontman of the Nazi punk band "Pogrom" and pointed to the band's song "Auschwitz" with antisemitic lyrics such as "fuck Anne Frank" and "Juden raus" ("Jews out").


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Ilias Kasidiaris, who has a swastika tattooed on his left arm, quoted the book "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in a speech to parliament on 23 October 2012. Defending himself in a discussion on whether to lift his parliamentary immunity over his assault of Kanelli, he quoted Protocol 19: "In order to destroy the prestige of heroism we shall send them for trial in the category of theft, murder and every kind of abominable and filthy crime." Golden Dawn's leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, denied the existence of gas chambers and ovens at Nazi extermination camps. On 6 June 2013, the Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris implied during a stormy debate in the Greek Parliament that he was a Holocaust denier.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In April 2014, Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros described Hitler as a "great personality, like Stalin" and denounced homosexuality as a "sickness". Panagiotaros also described most immigrant Muslims to Greece as "jihadists; fanatic Muslims" and claimed that he supported the concept of a one-race nation, stating, "if you are talking about nation, it is one race".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In December 2015, Golden Dawn was one of the main groups to reject a bill to allow civil partnerships for same-sex couples in Greece. Party leader, Nikolaos Michaloliakos stated, "church bells should toll mournfully across the country".


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Nikolaos Michaloliakos supports a revival of the "Megali Idea", the irredentist concept that guided Greece's foreign policy until the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922:


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: These regions, which in the past were Greek lands, had significant Greek populations until the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s. Michaloliakos has criticized Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris for wanting to name a street after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who was born in the city when it was part of the Ottoman Empire.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: In January 2013, a group of Golden Dawn supporters attacked the car of Turkish consul-general Osman İlhan Şener in Komotini during an anti-Turkey protest. The party members also insulted Atatürk during the attack.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn promoted a hardline stance on the Macedonia naming dispute, rejecting any compromise solution that would include the term "Macedonia" in the name of North Macedonia, on the basis that only Greek Macedonia is entitled to use the name. Mihaloliakos has also called for the "liberation" of Northern Epirus, which is today part of southern Albania, has a Greek minority and is claimed by Greek irredentists. Golden Dawn and its Cypriot counterpart ELAM support "enosis", the union of Cyprus with Greece.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Election advertisements for Golden Dawn depicted the burning of US and Israeli flags, a reflection of the party's strong anti-American and anti-Zionist position. However, in June 2018, the party's MEPs voted in favour of increased security coordination with Israel. Golden Dawn is also staunchly eurosceptic, opposing Greece's participation in the European Union and the eurozone.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn has spoken out in favor of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following the Syrian Civil War.


title: Golden Dawn (Greece)

text: Golden Dawn had aims to expand globally, with its spokesman saying in 2013 that the party planned to establish cells "wherever there are Greeks". Since 2012, the party has opened branches in Germany, Canada (Montreal), and the United States (primarily Astoria, Queens and Tarpon Springs, Florida), and has also aimed to establish a presence in Melbourne, Australia. Leaders among the Greek diaspora and Greek Orthodox Church have denounced the group's ideology; they say only a tiny portion of the diaspora supports the group. In 2012, a branch in Italy called "Alba Dorata" ("Golden Dawn" in Italian) was formed in Trieste.


title: Rape statistics

text: Statistics on rape and other sexual assaults are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.


title: Rape statistics

text: In some jurisdictions, male-female rape is the only form of rape counted in the statistics. Countries may not define forced sex on a spouse as rape. Rape is an under-reported crime. Prevalence of reasons for not reporting rape differ across countries. They may include fear of retaliation, uncertainty about whether a crime was committed or if the offender intended harm, not wanting others to know about the rape, not wanting the offender to get in trouble, fear of prosecution (e.g. due to laws against premarital sex), and doubt in local law enforcement.


title: Rape statistics

text: A United Nations statistical report compiled from government sources showed that more than 250,000 cases of rape or attempted rape were recorded by police annually. The reported data covered 65 countries. In a survey by United Nations, for 100 women that suffered sexual violence in their lifetimes, 14% had experienced attempted rape and 2.3% had experienced rape.


title: Rape statistics

text: Most rape research and reporting to date has been limited to male-female forms of rape. Research on male-male and female-male is beginning to be done. However, almost no research has been done on female-female rape, though women can be charged with rape in a few jurisdictions. A few books, such as "Violent Betrayal: Partner Abuse in Lesbian Relationships" by Dr. Claire M. Renzetti, "No More Secrets: Violence in Lesbian Relationships" by Janice Ristock, and "Woman-to-Woman Sexual Violence: Does She Call It Rape?" by Lori B. Girshick also cover the topic of rape of women by other women.


title: Rape statistics

text: This table indicates the number of, and per capita cases of recorded rape by country. It does not, and of course cannot, include cases of rape which go unreported or unrecorded. It does not specify whether recorded means reported, brought to trial, or convicted. Each entry is based on that country's definition of rape, which varies widely throughout the world. The list does not include the estimated rape statistics of the countries, per year, such as South Africa having 500,000 rapes per year, China having 31,833 rapes a year, Egypt having more than 200,000 rapes a year, and the United Kingdom at 85,000 rapes a year.


title: Rape statistics

text: <nowiki>* Changes in definitions and/or counting rules are reported by the Member State to indicate a break in the time series.</nowiki>


title: Rape statistics

text: As reference and verification of the mentioned numbers for the EU-27 could be used: "Violence against women: an EU-wide survey – Main results" published in 2014 - Table 2.1: Women who have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by current and/or previous partner, or by any other person since the age of 15, by EU Member State (%) and Table 2.7: Women who have experienced various forms of sexual violence by a partner or other persons since the age of 15 (%) - FRA gender-based violence against women survey dataset, 2012


title: Rape statistics

text: Rape in Afghanistan is a crime which can be legally prosecuted, but in practice it is very rarely reported, because of the immense risks that women face if they report it. Rape victims in the country face a double risk of being subjected to violence: on one hand they can become victims of honour killings perpetrated by their families, and on the other hand they can be victimized by the laws of the country: they can be charged with adultery, a crime that can be punishable by death. Furthermore, they can be forced by their families to marry their rapist. In 2011, Afghanistan made international news in regard to the story of a woman who was raped by a man, jailed for adultery, gave birth to a child in jail, and was then subsequently pardoned by president Hamid Karzai, and in the end married the man who raped her. In 2012, Afghanistan recorded 240 cases of honour killings and 160 cases of rape, but the number for both honour killings and rapes is estimated to be much higher. In 2013, in eastern Ghazni, a man attacked a woman and attempted to rape her, and as a result the relatives of the woman killed both the woman and the man in an honour killing. In Afghanistan, crimes such as adultery, rape and trafficking are often conflated with each other, and it is generally not acceptable for a woman and a man to be alone together (unless married or related), and if this happens the response can be very violent: an Afghan medical doctor and his female patient were attacked by an angry mob who threw stones at them after the two were discovered in his private examining room without a chaperon. Recently, the security forces have been also alleged to rape children in the country.


title: Rape statistics

text: Article 336 of the Penal Code stipulates that rape is a punishable offence, but does not give a definition of rape, as this is left to the courts. The lack of a clear definition of rape in Algerian law makes it difficult for women to report the act and seek legal remedies.


title: Rape statistics

text: The Hassi Messaoud was reported in 2001, 2005, and 2010 to sexually assault, traffic, and abuse women.


title: Rape statistics

text: There have been continuous allegations that during the Algerian War French troops had engaged in acts of torture and rape against Algerians.