Ilias Panagiotaros

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.

Christos Pappas, who was second in charge of the far-right Golden Dawn party, was arrested late on July 1 in Zografos, a suburb of the Greek capital Athens. 

Pappas, who had been sentenced to 13 years in prison in October 2020 along with other senior members of the party for forming a criminal organization, had gone missing after the verdict.

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.

A court in Athens on Monday sentenced two former lawmakers of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn to four months in jail for firing a weapon without just cause at the funeral of a former junta general in 2013.

Ilias Panagiotaros and Konstantinos Barbarousis had attended the funeral of Nikos Dertilis, a member of the 1967-74 military dictatorship's top officials, who died in January 2013, aged 92.

Members of far-right Golden Dawn stormed into the third floor of the Athens Journalists' Union, ESIEA, shouting abusive slogans on Monday, during an event observing Human Rights Day. The event focused on issues regarding ethnic minorities living in Greece as well as recommendations by international organizations.

Less than a year ago, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had vowed to "eradicate" neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn as an investigation began into the party’s allegedly criminal activities.

As results filtered in from Sunday’s first round of local elections, it was clear his promise has yet to be met.

Golden Dawn lawmaker Ilias Panagiotaros, one of several of the neofascist party's MPs facing charges as part of a criminal probe, has hailed Adolf Hitler as "a great personality" in an interview with Australian television program 60 Minutes and has said GD would have solved all of Greece's problems if it had taken the law into its hands.