‘You are not welcome here'
In a political system plagued by accusations of corruption and cronyism, few Greek ministers can claim to be controversy-free. But the new minister for migration and asylum, Makis Voridis, is in a league of his own. Back in the 1980s, he led the youth wing of a fascist party founded by Greece's former dictator Georgios Papadopoulos. There's even a photograph of Voridis wielding an axe against leftist students.
And so the prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, put him in charge of helping refugees. It was partly a response to the protests in March, when hundreds of thousand took to the streets after the 2023 Tempi rail disaster. Greece's worst-ever train crash killed 57 people, and there's a broad view that the government response has been inept. In an attempt to help his approval ratings, Mitsotakis went for a cabinet shake-up, which is when Voridis got his new job.
'I was devastated,' says Lefteris Papagiannakis, director of the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR). 'Because I know exactly who Voridis is, what he stands for.' The GCR provides legal aid and other support for asylum seekers and refugees, which makes it precisely the sort of organisation Voridis will see as an obstacle to his hardline agenda.
'We're seeing a symbolic change in the narrative – much more direct, much more aggressive. At least, that's the image he wants to project. But I don't think he'll actually be able to make all the changes he's shouting about. I don't think Greece will manage to change the European policy at the level he wants.'
Voridis is the latest in a stream of hardliners in Greek politics. 'Putin has a higher approval rating here than anywhere else in Europe, so the 'strong man' model people really respond to,' says Papagiannakis. 'Mitsotakis knows this, so he's using them to appeal to the far right electorate.'
While the prime minister is supposedly centrist, you'll often see Greeks referring to this political stance in air quotes. Since coming to power in 2019, his New Democracy party has pushed policies that blur the line between mainstream conservatism and far right nationalism, such as tightening immigration laws and cracking down on press freedoms.
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Hester Underhill
And while Voridis might not live up to his bold claims, his appointment couldn't have come at a worse time for Papagiannakis and his organisation. Trump's foreign aid cuts have put the Greek Refugee Council's future in danger, as the NGO was heavily reliant on the UNHCR to finance its operations. 'We might not be the only organisation advocating for refugees here, but we're one of the only ones that really bites. We use the legal system to hold the government accountable for its actions. So the government will really benefit from all these funding cuts, because if there are no NGOs around to challenge them, they can get away with whatever they like. And that scares me.'
Earlier this year his organisation helped to win a landmark case at the European Court of Human Rights for a woman forcibly sent back to Turkey despite her attempts to seek protection. Greece was found guilty of carrying out a policy of illicit deportation – the first time the country had been publicly condemned for conducting the 'systematic' repatriation of refugees.
But a new EU migration pact that comes into force next year might lead to even more rights violations. The pact on migration and asylum is meant to be 'a fresh start' for the EU. It will give member states three options: relocate a certain number of asylum seekers, pay €20,000 per claimant they refuse to relocate, or finance operational support, such as staff and equipment. 'It will make things worse,' says Papagiannakis. 'Because we'll just end up seeing more illegal detentions and pushbacks.'
And with new political figures like Voridis in positions of authority, the question isn't just how the Greek government will handle the flow of migrants across its borders, but who will be left to hold them accountable.
Hester Underhill is a freelance British journalist currently based in Athens
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