In February 2020, shortly before the escalation of the COVID-19 crisis across Europe, I speculated on the prospects of the ‘right-wing faction’ within Greece’s ruling party, the centre-Right, conservative New Democracy, to shift the party further to the Right. This faction has a more nationalist orientation and socially conservative outlooks on areas such as foreign policy and security issues; relations between Church and the state; and the implementation of a stricter ‘law and order’ agenda.
Back then, the conclusion was that although this faction's operation within New Democracy was of a crucial significance for the attraction of conservative voters, its potential to engineer a fully fledged shift of the entire party to the Right was regulated by intra-party constraints.
However, since spring 2020 Greece has seen several incidents of police violence, as part of the alleged aim to implement the lockdown measures for the prevention of COVID-19 infections. This includes the alleged beating up of a civilian who was said to be ignoring the curfew by policemen in the Nea Smyrni neighborhood of Athens. This incident was followed by violent ‘reprisals’ on police units by anarchist groupings between 7-9 March 2021.
