Abstract

The rise of Golden Dawn (GD), Europe's most radical parliamentary party, sparked considerable media and scholarly attention. Conventional wisdom attributed this phenomenon to the anti-systemic appetite generated by the Greek debt crisis. Building on GD's fierce anti-communism, we propose a different explanation, one that highlights the revival of historical legacies during periods of abrupt political dealignment. Exposure to (communist-led) insurgent violence during the civil-war generated strongholds of anti-communist sentiment. The anti-right consensus that prevailed in the years following the democratic transition eroded its electoral salience. Anti-communism re-surged in response to the abrupt dealignment caused by the debt crisis, which enabled past trauma to regain political salience. A within-province, cross-village analysis shows that civil-war anti-communism predicts GD support, but only after the crisis. Apart from enhancing our understanding about the historical roots of the radical right, the findings of the study provide new insights into the mechanics of time-varying persistence.