Nazi party

Judges in the long-running trial of Golden Dawn (GD) on Thursday are finally hearing from Giorgos Roupakias, the man charged with the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in September 2013.

Yorgos Patelis, the former leader of the strong Nikaia cell of the paramilitary branch of Golden Dawn, which was responsible for the mobilisation of the neo-Nazi party's storm troopers who murdered anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, today told the judge at his trial that he had nothing to do with the murder.

Testifying in the trial of Golden Dawn on Wednesday, Giorgos Patelis, the former head of the neo-Nazi party's Nikaia chapter in southwest Athens, denied any involvement in the killing of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013.

In the 1990s, Greece was enjoying the best moment of its modern history while most of its Balkan neighbors were still dealing with the debris left by their communist regimes or the horrors of the Yugoslav wars. Nationalism was strong in Greece (it has always been), but the economy was doing great.

The New Democracy party defeated Syriza in a landslide victory on Sunday, in Greece's first parliamentary elections since the country's exit from its international financial bailout in August 2018.

Far-right Golden Dawn was on the brink of suffering a staggering defeat in Greece's general election on Sunday, falling short of the 3 percent threshold needed to enter the House and losing its seven-year-long parliamentary representation.

Four years into the trial of Golden Dawn as a criminal organisation and for the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, the court began hearing the testimony of those charged in the case.

One of the key witnesses in the ongoing trial against the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn on Thursday testified to making the call that set off a chain of events culminating in the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in the Piraeus suburb of Keratsini in the early hours of September 18, 2013.

Greece's Golden Dawn sustained significant losses in the two recent election races in Greece. In its former stronghold of Laconia in the Peloponnese, the neo-Nazi party lost more than 50 percent of the support it had in the 2014 European Parliament elections in last month's contest.

European Parliament elections gave observers of the far right in Greece something to smile about as Golden Dawn lost nearly half of its votes compared to the previous EU ballot in 2014. But it was not all good news.