THERE is good news and bad news in the trial of 69 Greek neo-Nazis accused murder and political violence inspired by racist hatred. The good news is that the trial of members of the far-right Golden Dawn party, including its leader Nikos Michaloliakos, is finally under way. The bad news is that the case is likely to last at least a year and runs the risk, as with so many things in Greece, of collapsing into a disorderly farce. There are already signs of things going awry. The trial has opened in a specially-built courtroom inside an Athens top security jail. But not all of the accused were there. The main absentee was Michaloliakos himself. Recently released from remand in prison, the neo-Nazi leader is under closely-guarded house arrest. This does not bode well for the long process ahead. The authorities have been bracing themselves for violent protests from Golden Dawn thugs. This may have accounted for their decision to not to bring key defendants to the court for the first day of the trial. If so, it was a mistake which will surely only encourage the neo-Nazis to redouble their attempts to disrupt the trial. Greek prosecutors claim they have a solid case against the Golden Dawn leadership. But they say that. There has to be a challenge in linking Michaloliakos and his top henchmen to the 2013 murder of anti-racist rapper Pavlos Fyssas. Then again the wisdom of staging a mass trial is highly questionable. It would have been more efficient and surely easier to have prosecuted the accused in discrete batches. Instead there are going to be almost 70 defendants in the courtroom, a ready-made claque or rent-a-mob, who can be expected to disrupt the proceeding, bawl down judges and lawyers and generally demonstrate a mass contempt for the Greek justice system. On top of this Michaloliakos will have a supportive audience for his inevitable attempts to grandstand in the coming year, most particularly when he seizes the opportunity to speak in his own defense. It must already be suspected that an unseen hand has brought about such unwieldy proceedings in the clear expectation that they are a recipe for judicial disaster. The stark reality is that this trial matters to more than just Greece. The resurgence of neo-Nazi parties throughout Europe, with their barely concealed message of bigotry, most especially against Muslims, is a cause for the greatest concern. Some neo-Nazis such as French National Front leader, Marine Le Pen are seeking to sanitize their message of hate by hiding it behind policies that play upon rising voter anxiety over illegal immigrants. Golden Dawn was typical in the way that its street fighters beat up migrants, killing at least one victim, a Muslim from Pakistan. European leaders are panicking that immigration is going to be the issue that will lose them votes and elections. Their new get-tough policies are disgraceful and signal a victory for the racists. The real challenge is not immigration but race hate. That battle has to be fought in the courts, using a strong portfolio of laws to prosecute the preachers of bigotry and violence. The Golden Dawn trial ought to be a precursor of cases the length of Europe. Unfortunately the Greeks may be no better at this prosecution than they are at managing their state finances.
