An island that suffered at the hands of Nazi Germany immensely during World War II doesn’t forget the past too easily. In the September 20th Greek national elections, the historic town of Anogeia— burned to the ground by the Nazi Germans during the Second World War and twenty-five other villages throughout Crete didn’t give a single vote to the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.
Golden Dawn scored its lowest voter totals in Crete, than anywhere else in Greece. On islands like Kos, besieged by the refugee crisis, the anti-immigrant nationalist party saw huge increases in new voters.
The town of Anogeia had 1604 people casting votes, which were split between the two leading parties of Syriza and New Democracy, as well as a dozen smaller parties— without a single vote for Golden Dawn.
Two dozen more entire villages on the island gave Golden Dawn zero votes. The names of the villages (in Greek) are below:
Ηρακλειο:
Καλάμι Βιάννου
Καμάρι Μαλεβιζίου
Καμαριώτη Μαλεβιζίου
Πολυθέας Μινώα Πεδιάδας
Πέρι Φαιστού
Αϊτάνια
Χανιά
Μαχαιρών Αποκόρωνα
Μελιδονίου Αποκόρωνα
Σέμπρωνα Πλατανιά
Σκαλωτής Σφακίων
Ρέθυμνο
Δριμίσκου
Αγίου Βασιλείου
Αγίου Ιωάννη Καλής Συκιάς
Λαμπιωτών
Μέρωνα
Αγίου Μάμαντος, Αβδελλά
Καλανδαρέ
Αξουλιβάδα
Έρφοι
Δήμου Ανωγείων
Λασίθι
Λούμα δήμου Αγίου Νικολάου
Γδόχια Ιεράπετρας
Κάτω Μετόχι
Μαρμακέτω
Λάστρο Σητείας
Ρούσσες Εκκλησιές
A similar phenomenon occurred in the January 2015 national elections.
Interviews below with locals show the fierce opposition to any neo-fascist or neo-Nazi element amongst the locals of Anogeia.
4 comments
Nationalism means taking care of yourself first. Your people. Your culture. Your identity and blood.
It does not mean attacking others, nor wishing others harm. Greeks would like to exist and have their own nation state. Greeks would like to be the majority in this nation state.
If Greeks deserve to exist, and not be a minority in their own country, and you do not agree with this, then obviously you would like to see a Greek state cease to exist.
Cretans will be singing a very different tune once the ‘reforms’ kick in. Perhaps they need to be culturally enriched by some illegal immigrants. Those are on the way, Syriza will make sure of that!
The only reason Crete does not give support to a party like Golden Dawn is because they have no need to. Its amazing how Crete has been shielded by migrants. The african migrants dont land on Crete and even before this new influx it still was a rarity. Obviously middle eastern migrants can never make it to Crete.
The fact is that the people of Crete are quite xenophobic, and if their villages were affected i would fear for the migrants.