The 2009–2018 Greek government-debt crisis has facilitated the rise of far right groups in Greece, most notably the formerly obscure Golden Dawn.
Because of religious reasons, the community of Corfu island constantly submitted petitions to the Venetian authorities regarding the spatial restriction of the Jews, which resulted with a statute which limited the abandonment of their district without a written permission.
[7]: 271 Sources:[7]: 272 [8][9] The antisemitic incident of blood libel took place on the island of Corfu upon the finding of a girl's dead body in a Jewish residence on 1 April 1891.
[7][9] After the parents reporting the disappearance of their daughter to the police and the related news becoming public via Kangas, whole island became aware of the incident and whole Jewish community began their search for the girl.
[7]: 274 Meanwhile, the prosecutor Kefalas reported: From that moment on, those who had the most to gain by stirring the whole city against the Jewish element, shouted that the murdered girl was Christian, that her blood was drawn by the Jews, to be used for their Mazot, without which they could not celebrate Easter, that the judges and prosecutors and all military authorities were bribed to take care of the Jews, setting the murderers free for the sake of future elections.
[7]: 274 With the rapid spread of the groundless news, Christian population of the city turned against the Jews despite the fact that the medical report was later proven to be incorrect.
[14] Partly to head off any new-found threat from extremism, thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish Greeks attended Thessaloniki's Holocaust Commemoration in March 2013.
[15] The meeting was personally addressed by Greece's prime minister, Antonis Samaras, who delivered a speech to Monastir Synagogue (Thessaloniki).
A Samaras spokesman described the comments as "unacceptable, racist and anti-Semitic", and Tsipras's party called a special meeting to address the issue.
Giorgos Antoniou, a historian at the International Hellenic University, commented to the article and said that "the Holocaust is not really treated as an issue of national concern”.
[20] In April 2015, Dimitris Kammenos, an MP for the right-wing Independent Greeks party, responded on a Tweet by Russian news-site RT about antisemitism in Europe with the question: "Have you recorded the attacks of Jews against all of us?".
[24] A few members of the ruling New Democracy (Greece) party have been criticised for their antiseminitism, among them high-ranking ministers: Adonis Georgiadis, currently vice-president of New Democracy, has been accused of 'promoting antisemitism', and has in the past promoted self-proclaimed nazist Konstantinos Plevris's book "Jews, the whole truth", an antisemitic screed that calls for the extermination of Jews and impugns Adolf Hitler for not "finishing his work".
[30] Norman Finkelstein also criticized it, saying "I would find it alarming if anyone except [Anti-Defamation League National Director] Abe Foxman (and perhaps the New York Times editorial board) took this survey seriously.
In 2010, it won a seat on the Athens City Council and in the June 2012 election it received 6.92 percent of the national vote - thus becoming the fifth largest party currently in the parliament.
According to an October poll (in 2012), if elections were held then, Golden Dawn would gain no less than 14 percent of the vote, making it Greece's third-largest party.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras described Golden Dawn as "a right-wing extremist, one might say Fascist, neo-Nazi party".
With its violence against immigrants, swastika-like emblem and Nazi salute, its aggressive rallies, and unabashed references to Mein Kampf, as well as its propagation of literature touting the racial superiority of the Greeks, promoting Aryan supremacy, racist and antisemitic ideology, and Holocaust denial.
[43][44] Nevertheless, Golden Dawn does not regard itself as a Nazi or even neo-Nazi party (although photographs published on August 8, 2013, revealed a swastika's tattoo on Elias Kasidiàris shoulder[45] ), but simply as a nationalist formation, the members of which seek to rescue Greece for the Greeks - with its nationalist rhetoric, the party appeals to Greek pride.
[46] In 2002, marked by a wave of antisemitic manifestations, the most disturbing was the electoral success of George Karatzaferis, the leader of the ultra-nationalist LAOS party.
He also owned the weekly newspaper Alpha Ena, both of which, along with the LAOS party, were singled out as the major disseminators of the September 11th libel in Greece.
They carried antisemitic rhetoric and included photos of party members performing the Nazi salute or violent acts.
According to Professor Frangiski Abatzopoulou of the University of Thessaloniki, the Burning of Judas Iscariot (the Holy Thursday custom of the "Kapsimo tou Youda") is the "most familiar and widespread manifestation of traditional anti-Semitism in Greece".