Galery

1

The residents of the small village of Potamia on the island of Thassos unpleasantly surprised Golden Dawn’s strong fellows. Although their popularity is very high and the free food-giving campaigns are successful in Athens, especially in the neighbourhoods in the city centre, the residents of the island reacted angrily and thwarted the initiative of the neo-Nazis.
 
The residents, holding in their hands posters with slogans against Golden Dawn and its ideology, did not allow the unloading of the food from the truck and forced the party members to leave the village, telling them that they did not want them there and did not need their handouts.

The informal dispute involved members of the local cultural society, the football team and individual citizens. They gathered in the square in Potamia and having isolated the men wearing the typical black clothes, they told them that they did not want their products and urged them to leave the village.

At the same time, they appealed to their neighbours who wanted to take the free products not to do so.

The residents of Potamia had written on their placards slogans such as "Fascism will not win. Do not become the fish it feeds" and "Fight will win over fascism rather than handouts" and shouted slogans with similar meaning.

A few days earlier, the Golden Dawners had organized a campaign to hand out free products in another village on the island of Thassos, namely Limenakia. However, according to sources, very few people had responded to the call of the neo-Nazis.

In the coming days, they are expected to organize a campaign in Panagia village too, where, however, they will face equally angry reactions since the people have already said they will not accept the members of Golden Dawn or the products they want to hand out.

A day later, Golden Dawn officially rebutted the information through its website, defining the campaign in Potamia as completely successful and stating that "the media that are dependent on the regime" had published false information.

The Golden Dawners published several photographs, pointing out that the majority of the residents of the village "spat in the face of the racist mob" and took the free products. They compared the photograph circulated in the media with one of their photographs to show that some of the protesters lined up later to get free food and did not hesitate to draw a red circle around them.

Source: Golden Dawn’s website

In all cases, it makes an impression that Golden Dawners uploaded  photographs to support their position, but not a video, as they always do after a successful campaign.

Dimitris Koutlis from Potamia, a member of the municipal council in Thassos, however, says, "What annoyed the Golden Dawners the most was the fact that they were not even able to move freely in the village, not to mention the handing out of the food. The residents of Panagia and Potamia have firmly stated that they do not want handouts from them and showed them that they are not welcome in their villages."

Commenting on the position of Golden Dawn that the campaign was successful, he states, "There were three people who took some food out of naiveté. However, this is no reason for anyone to claim that the people have responded en masse to their appeal. The most important element of Sunday's protest is that a large group of citizens had organized themselves and were able to respond dynamically to the attempt by members of Golden Dawn to give them handouts," he states in conclusion.