Racist, anti-semitic, violent – the true face of Golden Dawn

Golden Dawn, the extreme right-wing party in Greece, won 18 seats in the country’s last election.

Since then support for the party has doubled as it pushes tough new anti-immigrant laws, including banning non-ethnic Greeks from the military and police.

National Film and Television School student Konstantinos Georgousis spent a month with the organisation last summer, as Greece hovered on the abyss, for his documentary film The Cleaners.

‘Shocked by their hostility’

Writing about his experience of making the film, Mr Georgousis says: “I walked through every nook and cranny in the centre of Athens to find these Golden Dawn members.

“I was terrified that these members were proud to express their extreme ideas during campaigning openly in public. I was shocked by their hostility and by the way they treated immigrants in the Athenian squares.”

Greek centre-right New Democracy MP Adonis Georgiadis told Channel 4 News the opinions expressed by Golden Dawn supporters in Konstantinos Georgousis’s film are not “the opinion of the majority of Greek people”.

“Many man people in Greece are very much concerned about the changing of the population because of these illegal immigrants,” he said.

“Golden Dawn is a disgrace for our society and our democracy.”

But he explained that Greek society was under “major pressure” which prompted some people went to vote for Golden Dawn.