From mainstream to extreme: Casino capitalism, fascism and the re-bordering of immigration in Greece

Abstract

Τhe electoral success of the far-right in Greece deals, not only, with the retreat of the state from the provision of public goods such as welfare services and security, but predominantly, with mainstream anti-immigrant discourses and representations, which have been further deteriorated, intensified and expanded during economic crisis. Over the last years, official and media discourses, re-fabricating the popular ‛deep structures’ of nationalism and masculinity, targeted immigrants as responsible for the deterioration of social life, especially in the urban centres. As a result, ‛the immigrant other’ came to the forefront of the political debate as the dangerous and contaminating ‛other’. In this framework, my aim is to approach the popularity and the quick rise of fascism not as an accident, but as ‛a chronicle of death foretold’, strongly interconnected with media representations and official public statements and interventions, framed by casino capitalism and the expansion of mainstream nationalist, as well as racist discourses and accounts. As it emerges from the immigration histories of Europe and the USA, xenophobia and the rise of fascism under the cover of nationalism and patriotism in times of economic recession, is a rather banal phenomenon. What however needs further examination is the close interconnection between official representations disseminated through state-controlled media and fascist action. My main point is that fascists in Greece pushed to the edges mainstream xenophobic representations, further popularized in the era of crisis.