The remains of the words “blood and honor,” one of Golden Dawn’s slogans.

Far too many people confuse the love of one’s country with the hatred of other people.

In actuality, you can be a well-educated, well adjusted and well respected member of society and also believe in patriotic and nationalistic ideals.

The stigmatization of right wing politics is something that has plagued Greece for a long time, and it all comes back to what happened with Golden Dawn (Χρυσή Αυγή). Those familiar with 21st century Greek politics remember Golden Dawn for their ascription as a neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organization that defined the right wing political space before its leadership were sent to prison and the party was permanently dismantled in 2020.

The fate of Golden Dawn made it so that all subsequent right wing parties, and likely all future right wing parties, will inevitably be compared to them – the assumed measuring stick that threatens to overshadow entirely separate political movements.

KTE is not here to criticize or praise or redefine what Golden Dawn was; instead, we are here to demonstrate that people can believe in a right wing government without having any desire or inclination towards violence – one of the chief complaints of Golden Dawn’s critics.

A Golden Dawn demonstration in Komotini, 2010.

On a fundamental level, nationalism and patriotism is not based on the hatred of another group – quite the opposite – it’s based on the love of your own group. Just as anyone who loves their family does not hate other families, so too is the sentiment of KTE and Greek nationalists who aim to live in peaceful coexistence with one another, from within the boundaries of our own nations.

As a project seeking the very best for Greeks and its diaspora, KTE sees how the entirety of the right wing political space is ascribed an intentionally misrepresented set of values. At present, one cannot have a conversation about Hellenic nationalism without detractors throwing around words like racism, xenophobia and fascism, and we feel that is intellectually dishonest.

If we want to have an honest national dialogue about where Greece is headed, we need to start from square one: by answering the question, “how do we define the nation?” To us, a nation isn’t just a group of people living within a political entity. It is a group of people that is united by common culture, faith, history, language and common blood.

Through this definition of the nation, we can more accurately describe exactly who and what we are trying to preserve. The way we see it, we belong to one big family of Greeks, and we just want what is best for them. We want the government of our people to work for our people.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we wish to inflict violence on any other group. To us, the Greek nation is one big “family.” The nations of other people are their “big families.” And just as we want to protect our own family, we respect the wishes and desires of other people to protect their families.

Thus, protecting this lineage isn’t simply important, it is the duty and obligation of all Greeks. To see your Hellenic heritage as an accident or a random assignment, rather than an inheritance, is a flawed worldview that neglects the long history of your ancestors who fought, bled, and died for it.

It’s true that we are hopeless romantics for our people. We love them endlessly, and while we do believe other cultures are great and deserve to be celebrated, they also cannot undermine our own.

As such, KTE does not intend to allow the Greek government to sell out its own family for any other. Regarding issues of immigration and alien groups who absorb resources otherwise reserved for Hellenic peoples, we hold that there cannot be unrestricted and unfiltered immigration to any country without negative consequences for the host. Greece must look after its own family first.

Golden Dawn was probably never truly capable of ruling Greece. However, the wishes and desires of its 500,000 voters are still worthy of consideration. These people are alive and they are voting, and their concerns cannot be ignored despite accusations of distasteful politics by the media.

Nationalists in Greece choose to resist believing in such stereotypes in order to defend their family. This is both the policy of right wing governance, but also the belief of every well-educated person who has seriously studied nationalism without bias.