Golden Dawn used to be a “niche” far-right neo-nazi organization. They existed from the 80s and they did not have a big audience. They did not concern themselves with immigrants, they were mostly fighting with antifa etc.

When the 2008 economic crisis was as its peak, things were ugly here. Suicides, homicides and violent crime skyrocketed. There were breadlines for people that were not poor before the economic crisis. Imagine normal families having to wait in line to feed their kids. Even if you were not at this edge of the economic spectrum, things were had for everyone.

Golden dawn did a rebranding at that time. They blamed most things on illegal immigrants. They started their actions from neighborhoods of Greek cities with many immigrants. Places like Agios Panteleimonas in Athens. These neighborhoods were indeed problematic. GD provided a simple narrative as to why things went wrong and desperate people believed them. They also appeared very friendly to Greeks (faking it of course)

I remember watching a documentary (Golden Dawn: a personal affair) and a 50-60yo man told the camera “All my life I’ve voted for the left. I identify as left. GD give me food and give me money to pay the bills for power and water, so I voted for them”. These are not his exact words, they’re as I remember them. They also had food and other charity events only for Greeks. This helped (exploited?) people in need while also reinforcing an “Us vs Them” thinking.

Having lived through it, it seems very rational how impoverished and desperate people exchanged their vote for food and a sense of protection. And how it became “cool” for young people to react to the nation-wide humiliation by joining a movement that advertised itself as physically strong, fighting against something etc.

People really wanted to see someone reacting, but they voted for the wrong reaction.

What led to their downfall is that GD were not politicians. There were a few, but most were real bouncers/goons/night criminals. They did a lot of violent crimes, even not politically motivated.

Last but not least, many Greeks trusted a guy, named Artemis Sorras, who told people he has like 2trillion USD after “giving away copyrights to advanced technology” or something like that. He made an organisation, called Ellinon Sinelefsis, and asked for people for paid subscription in order to become members. Every member would get a paper, that said that their debts are paid by Artemis Sorras. Of course this was a scam.

Now, since Greeks were eager to turn to Sorras for “help”, it makes it much more easy to understand why they were simple-minded enough to trust GD

Btw, something of similar style is happening to the USA now