As beggars fight for scraps, even police flirt with the Neo-Nazis, writes Andrew Malone in a special dispatch from Athens Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2160924/As-beggars-fight-scraps-police-flirt-Neo-Nazis-writes-Andrew-Malone-special-dispatch-Athens.html#ixzz1yFLbtrnq

Basking in the sun as Greece went to the polls yesterday, Dimitri Panaglos sipped a cold beer and gave a personal – and very cynical – insight into how his tiny country could ignite global financial meltdown and leave the cradle of civilisation in economic ruins.
Widely travelled, with family in London where he studied for a degree in fine art, the 40-year-old smiled grimly and told me: ‘We Greeks are all thieves. People didn’t know it when we had the drachma. But you soon knew when we joined the euro. We borrowed and spent without ever planning to pay it back. That’s just the Greek way.’
Now selling hand-drawn cartoons to tourists, having lost his studio and home, he added: ‘We are Greeks, not Europeans. That’s why we have always had two prices in every cafe – one on the sign that’s for foreigners and local cheap rates for Greeks.

On the move: Supporters of the far right party of Golden Dawn toast their election result in which they provisionally won 18 seats in the Greek parliament

‘Europe has never understood Greece – it’s a country where you take from foreigners, not give.’
Many of his countrymen would fiercely dispute his words. What cannot be denied, however, is that the good life seems to be coming to an emphatic end for the Greeks.
With Europe demanding austerity measures in return for keeping the country afloat – more than 240billion euros has already been provided by Europe’s taxpayers – Greeks were last night effectively voting on whether to accept the deal or plunge into chaos and possible bloodshed.

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The EU has said that the conditions of the latest 130billion-euro bailout deal must be accepted fully by a new government or funds will be cut off, driving the country into bankruptcy.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, warned that Greece will not be allowed to dodge its austerity agreement and ‘lead everyone else through the arena by the nose ring’.
Many businesses are already pulling out of the country, with Carrefour, the French supermarket giant, the latest to announce it is quitting. This is against a background of fears that Greece is about to descend once more into the political dark ages almost four decades after the end of the country’s military dictatorship.
Germany’s biggest newspaperBild, summed up the mood of taxpayers there in an open letter to the Greek people this weekend. It said: ‘Your cash machines continue to give you euros only because we put them there, the Germans and the other nations that have the euro.
‘Yet you still call us “Nazis”. If the elections are won by parties that want to put an end to austerity and reform – breaching every agreement – we will stop paying. You will choose between painful logic and complete disaster. And we are very much afraid that you don’t get that yet.’

Show of strength: Members of the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn shout slogans and celebrate the results of the elections outside of their headquarter office in Thessaloniki

Already, in a chilling portent of what may lie ahead, some hospitals were yesterday running short of medicines.
As a harbinger of possible civil unrest, two grenades were thrown at a TV station. No one was hurt, it heightened fears that armed groups are preparing to capitalise on any disorder.
With predictions of violence if the country exits the euro, and with shortages of money to pay for petrol, medicines or power, thousands of Athenians left the capital over the weekend, fearing battles between groups fighting for control of the country.
Countless Greeks have moved their money abroad – fearing banks could run out of money in the event of a Left-wing triumph and prompting EU leaders to finally put an end to the seemingly limitless amounts of cash lavished on a country of under 11million people.
Meanwhile, in what’s been called Drachmageddon, central banks from London to Tokyo are readying new arsenals of money to defend banks and national currencies against any post-election turmoil on the financial markets.
All this has started to fracture Greek society. Crime is soaring, while rubbish piles up in the streets and beggars proliferate.
Traditionally a rough port city, for all its ancient ruins and noble history, Athens is now the scene of frequent violence as even beggars fight viciously over scraps.
Yesterday I watched two groups of immigrants battling over possession of an abandoned shopping trolley loaded with junk. After punches were exchanged and one man was battered with a piece of wood, the winners of this pitiful contest ran off, whooping and shouting, pushing their trolley of scrap metal.

The latest election results have threatened to spark turmoil across the Eurozone as Greece looks set to reach political stalemate while rival parties try to form a coalition government

Ominously, such a febrile mood is playing into the hands of the resurgent, black-shirted fascists and neo-Nazis who now patrol the streets and have launched attacks in immigrant areas. They are often seen riding around on powerful motorcycles and armed with clubs and knives.
Outside the headquarters of the far-right Golden Dawn party I watched yesterday as muscular men in black T-shirts waved and cheered as police on motorbikes roared past, giving thumbs-up signs to the neo-Nazis protesters. Elements in the police are alleged to have strong links with the far-Right.
Nico, one stocky member of the group, told me that he and his cronies have a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards immigrants suspected of crimes and ‘stealing’ jobs from local people.
He warned: ‘I can’t say what we will do – but there will be actions taking place through the night.’
So far, similar ‘actions’ have resulted in brutal attacks on immigrants, estimated to make up almost two million of Greece’s population. In one incident, an African man was run through with a sword in front of stunned passengers on the capital’s gleaming 20billion-euro metro (paid for, of course, entirely out of EU cash).
With Golden Dawn vigilantes touring immigrant areas on motorbikes, and more attacks feared, the issue of racial violence was highlighted after five Egyptians were savagely attacked in the capital, and a member of the foreign press was badly beaten for filming masked neo-Nazis chasing Africans through the streets.
Perhaps, even at this late hour, Greece can pull back from the brink.
But as the stars came out over the Acropolis last night, it was difficult not to conclude that whatever the election outcome, darkness beckons for this once proud country.