The snake reared its head
Article by AKEL Political Bureau member Eleni Mavrou
3 September 2023, “Haravgi” newspaper
Hidden behind black hoods, a bunch of cowardly fascists engaged in a demonstration of force in Limassol the day before yesterday and a few days ago in Chloraka. Who knows where they will do so tomorrow?
Many forces and circles are now “discovering” with horror that we are no longer dealing with the snake’s egg, but with the snake itself – repulsive and dangerous, as it has always been.
Many of those who were silent or made excuses when fascists were beating immigrants with crowbars, when they saw the Nazi salute or the swastika symbol in football grounds, when they passed by marches with fascists lined up in militarily formations and with clubs wrapped in Greek flags, are today beginning to understand that if yesterday and the day before yesterday fascists were beating foreigners, homosexuals, leftists, the day is not far off when they will attack anyone they find in their way.
They are beginning to understand that by white washing and exonerating fascism you provide them with an alibi, that by sowing the winds we will soon reap the whirlwinds.
Those forces and circles who permitted neo-Nazis to come out of the shadows selling false “patriotism” and engaging in the distortion and falsification of history bear grave responsibilities for what we have been experiencing over the last few days.
The monster is fed by the extreme political adventurism of those forces who are fishing for a few votes and thus contributing to the ‘normalization’ of racist and far-right rhetoric. The monster of fascism is fed by those political forces that provide parliamentary cover to fascism and now seek an alibi in condemnatory statements.
The monster is fed by those who hand out respect for human rights to those who are entitled to them and to the “others”, by those who publicly claim that integration is a “fairy tale”, by those who tend a sympathetic ear to the “good guys” (Note: reference to the late Archbishop’s remarks on the far-right ELAM party).
The monster is fed by the mass media who channel their poisonous discourse, maintaining an equal distance or looking for excuses.
The monster is fed by the state itself, with the unacceptable indifference (some would say tolerance and they would not be wrong) that it has shown many times in the past with regards similar incidents.
Fascism and the bullies who represent it did not appear out of nowhere, they were not created by the economic crisis and the many existing dead ends. All of them have been fed for decades by the rhetoric of hatred and fanaticism, by fragmented and ineffective actions that invested in fear and racist hysteria and bred fanaticism and the far right.
When the ghosts of the past come to life, democracy must be ready to defend its sovereignty resolutely. The fascists, who pretend to be lads against every poor and weak person, do not frighten us.
We will stand up against them.
Both tomorrow night in Limassol and whenever necessary.