⚡️October 28th: When “No” Becomes Relevant Again ⚡️

October 28th is not merely a national holiday. It is a reminder.
The Greek people said “No” to an ultimatum that demanded they surrender their country without resistance — and thus opened the way to one of the most glorious chapters in modern history.

A “No” spoken in an age of darkness, when Europe was boiling in fascism and war.
Today, 84 years later, the memory of that moment returns — not to satisfy national sentiment, but to pose once again the same question: Who is the fascism of our time? And who tolerates it?

Eighty-four years later, Europe seems to have forgotten the same lesson.
Fascism may have changed its face, but it has not disappeared.
It has returned through the rhetoric of fear, censorship, and political expediency.


The New Rise of Nazism in Europe

It is now impossible to ignore that Europe is once again experiencing — under new terms — a revival of the far right and neo-Nazism.
This time, it does not wear military boots; it wears suits and waves the flags of “democracy.”

From the electoral successes of far-right parties in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, to the normalization of hate speech and nationalism in the media, the continent that once promised “Never Again” seems to be losing its collective memory.

The most provocative manifestation of this trend lies in Ukraine, where battalions and political movements bearing explicit neo-Nazi symbols and references (such as the Azov Regiment) have been integrated into the official state apparatus — military units and parties that glorify Nazi collaborators of World War II.

The paradox is that this reality not only fails to provoke outrage, but is often silenced or justified in the name of geopolitical necessity and the so-called “fight for democracy” and “resistance to Russian aggression.”

The Europe that once stood against Hitler now winks at a new fascism, so long as it serves its strategic interests.
The official narrative of a “democratic Ukraine” has become the alibi of a collective moral blindness.
Historical memory is being turned into a tool of propaganda.


Greece’s Stance

Greece — the country that wrote its own “No” in blood — finds itself today in a difficult position.
On one hand, bound by its alliances with NATO and the European Union, it actively participates in supporting Ukraine: sending military equipment, backing sanctions, and adopting the European line, even when it contradicts its own historical experience.

On the other hand, part of Greek society feels that this stance conflicts with the lived memory of a people who know what occupation and resistance mean.
A large portion of society senses a discrepancy between the rhetoric of “Never Again” and the tolerance shown toward fascist tendencies in allied nations.

The Greek “No” of 1940 risks being reduced to a symbolic celebration devoid of political meaning.
Memory is not a formal obligation — it is an act.

The Greek political class prefers to see fascism as a phenomenon of the past.
Yet fascism does not always return with uniforms and swastikas.
Today it returns through censorship, media obedience, social fear, and political conformity around “forbidden” truths.

The acceptance of censorship in the name of being on “the right side of history” is perhaps the most alarming feature of this new era.