Nikos Michos

Golden Dawn party MPs Nikos Michos (L), Ilias Panagiotaros (C) and Ilias Kasidiaris (R) walk away from the Court House of Athens, 2 October 2013. Photo: EPA/ALEXANDROS VLACHOS

Conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis pushed for a second election after failing to win an outright majority in legislative elections held on May 21.

The trial of Golden Dawn continued Monday with the testimony of former MP Ilias Panagiotaros, during which it became evident that the key objective among the top echelons of Greece's neo-Nazi party is to deflect responsibility for criminal acts onto members of local party organizations.

The political trial of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn continued on Friday with the testimony of former MP Nikos Michos, which contradicted claims by other prominent party members relating to developments on the night that leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas was killed by GD member Giorgos Roupakias in September 2013.

The lawyers representing former lawmaker Nikos Michos and party chief Nikos Michaloliakos in the ongoing trial against Golden Dawn clashed in court on Friday when the ex-lawmaker cast aspersions concerning the far-right party's economic management and its lax treatment of members involved in the September 2013 murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

Golden Dawn European Parliament Member Yiannis Lagos and former MP Nikos Michos were found guilty on Friday over a July 2013 attack on a community center in the eastern Athens suburb of Ilioupoli.

Citing a more lenient criminal code passed by the previous government, one of the prosecutors in the ongoing trial against Golden Dawn has recommended the acquittal of two high-ranking officials in the neo-Nazi party in connection with the savage June 2012 attack on a group of Egyptian fishermen.

Golden Dawn was left with 16 MPs in Greece's 300-seat Parliament after deputy Nikos Michos announced his departure from the neofascist party, complaining that it had been hijacked by enemies of Greece's nationalist movement.

In a statement Tuesday, Michos announced his withdrawal and said he would be standing as an independent MP.

Golden Dawn acknowledges and upholds the law only when it suits it, Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis told Parliament on Friday during a heated exchange with a lawmaker from the neo-Nazi party.