Abstract
This thesis examines the origins, the course, the action, the ideological background and the evolution that Greek student parties had -particularly those placed on the fringes of extreme right and the nationalist student organizations- during the period 1949-1981. The selected period was not chosen incidentally. 1949 is the year Greece came out of a decade of military confrontations and was seeking for a government formation that would ultimately set the country in an orbit of growth and prosperity. The end of the examined era, 1981, is chosen because it is the year when political forces with clear progressive direction take the lead for the first time. Nevertheless, far right student extremism phenomena don’t seize. 1981 remains an important time mark for every researcher considering that this is when a long-term period of almost exclusively right or closed to right governance expired. The target of the current thesis has two legs. The first is about pointing out how those parties wer ...
This thesis examines the origins, the course, the action, the ideological background and the evolution that Greek student parties had -particularly those placed on the fringes of extreme right and the nationalist student organizations- during the period 1949-1981. The selected period was not chosen incidentally. 1949 is the year Greece came out of a decade of military confrontations and was seeking for a government formation that would ultimately set the country in an orbit of growth and prosperity. The end of the examined era, 1981, is chosen because it is the year when political forces with clear progressive direction take the lead for the first time. Nevertheless, far right student extremism phenomena don’t seize. 1981 remains an important time mark for every researcher considering that this is when a long-term period of almost exclusively right or closed to right governance expired. The target of the current thesis has two legs. The first is about pointing out how those parties were encountered by the state, namely conservative state and how this treatment changes regarding the political developments and ideological fermentations (EOKA fight against the British, Karamanlis escape to Paris, the coup of 1967, the affair of Cyprus). The second leg is about how far right tried to develop and survive in the field of studying youth, whether by autonomous presence or as a trend on the borders of more mediocre student parties. At the same time, the role that those organizations had in the ideological fermentations of the far right, and right wing in general, is illustrated. In order to answer the questions that this thesis sets as goals, both Greek and foreign bibliography was used as well as electronic sources, interviews with people having starred in some of the examined parties and archives. In addition, study of magazines, printed material (leaflets) and announcements of those organizations had an important role. Especially for the Student National Avant-garde, the National Junction of Greeks in Italy and the Student National Fighting Movement, rare or unique printed material was studied (i.e. “Provoli”, “Antidoto”, “The Student Issue” magazines and other), so as the present thesis contributes in the general research attempt aiming to study the political space that those parties represented inside Universities. The thesis follows the evolution of historical facts and includes the origins and actions of the particular parties in the political evolutions in Greece. For better understanding and explaining the facts, the examined period is divided into three sub-periods. The first one is about 1949-1967, when we see the primary steps of postwar Greek state, the first governments and the ways used by them, especially after the 1958 elections to restrain the rising of the left and EDA in particular. 1959 is the year when EKOF, National Social Organization of Students, a student group first appeared. Its foundation was part of a plan of the National Radical Union (ERE) governance so as to change the constantly growing appeal that progressive political forces had in Universities. Konstantinos Karamanlis escape creates frictions inside ERE, causing many members of the student party to turn towards more extreme student schemes, such as Student National Avant-garde (FEP). FEP constituted the student branch of the 4th of August party (K4A), a party with clearly nationalist and anti-democratic positions which was formed in 1965.The second sub-period begins with the military coup of April 21st 1967, the headmen of which took apart all student groups in Greece. On the same year, Greek students in Italy form ESESI. ESESI was clearly a Greek nationalist student organization that acted in Italy during 1967-1975 and left its sign on the Italian student history. The third and last sub-period begins after the fall of the dictatorship in 1974 and goes up to 1981. In the meantime, we have FEP’s reappearance and also the creation of a new far right student formation, FEAK. The course of those two may have not been important but they are the only student parties that went further beyond the central right party of New Democracy and its student branch, the Democratic Renewing Avant-garde - New Democratic Student Movement (DAP-NDFK).Finally, in order to give a political sign as accurate as possible to each one of the under examination student parties, an analysis of their main ideas takes place. Moreover, their action is studied by taking into consideration other corresponding European student organizations that were role models for the Greek far right or nationalist student ones.
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