Six years after the Three-Member Court of Appeal ruled that Golden Dawn was a criminal organization — convicting Ilias Kasidiaris for his membership and leadership role — the now 46-year-old far-right figure has been released from Domokos Prison and is seeking a return to politics.
Read also: Xenophon Kontiadis on Kasidiaris’ release: What the law says about his electoral eligibility (Video)
The question dominating public debate appears straightforward: Can he actually do it? The answer is anything but simple — though the most likely answer is no, he is not legally entitled to. Ultimately, the final word rests with the Supreme Court (Areios Pagos).
Can Ilias Kasidiaris make a comeback in Greek politics?
Let’s start from the beginning. In early 2023, through a dual legislative intervention by the Greek government — spearheaded by Giorgos Gerapetritis and Makis Voridis — a new provision was introduced requiring the A1 Division of the Supreme Court to carry out an additional check before officially recognizing electoral coalitions in open session: specifically, whether a party has a figurehead leader while its true leader is someone convicted and serving a prison sentence.
The provision passed by New Democracy and PASOK
With the votes of New Democracy and PASOK-KINAL, Article 102 of Law 5019/2023 was passed, granting the Supreme Court the authority to determine — based on all available evidence — whether the leadership of an electoral coalition is merely a front, and whether the real leader is the person appearing at rallies, posting on social media, featuring in videos, and issuing announcements. If that person has been convicted — as Kasidiaris has — the court will bar the party from participating in elections.
The second legislative provision
A second legislative measure expanded this review process to the full plenary of the A Division (A1 and A2 combined), meaning the decision now falls to ten Supreme Court justices rather than five. On this basis, ahead of the first elections of May 2023 — and following the submission of extensive documentary evidence — the Supreme Court ruled that the true leader of the party “Ellines” (Greeks), which had declared its intention to run, was the convicted Ilias Kasidiaris, and not the declared leader Anastasios Kanellopoulos.
What happened in the June 2023 elections — and what Vasilis Stigkas declared
In the second elections of June 2023, the network of the former Golden Dawn enforcer threw its support behind a different party — the Spartans — helping it surpass the 3% threshold and enter parliament. At that point, no other party had sufficient time to conduct the investigation needed to establish the existence of a figurehead leadership, the Supreme Court lacked adequate evidence, and so the Spartans were permitted to compete normally in the elections.
“Ilias Kasidiaris’ support was the fuel that gave us the push to achieve today’s electoral result,” declared Spartans party leader Vasilis Stigkas on election night. Just weeks later, however, he turned on his own MPs, openly pointing to the influence they were receiving from Kasidiaris. “I’m saying publicly that they are being guided and controlled by external, extra-parliamentary forces. I say this with full conviction,” he stated, adding that “these external forces are being referred to as a ‘Greek mafia’ — one that dictates what will be done, how it will be done, and when.”
The Electoral Court’s ruling on Spartans MPs
Armed with this — and other — evidence, the Electoral Court subsequently stripped three Spartans MPs of their seats, ruling that an electoral violation had occurred, “consisting of the deception of voters through the participation in elections of a political party with a concealed leader across the entire country.”
It is therefore clear that Ilias Kasidiaris cannot lead any party running in elections for the full duration of his sentence — 13 years and six months — meaning until 2033. Nor can he install a frontman while effectively controlling the party himself.
The possibility of forming a party under a different leader
But could he run as a parliamentary candidate under a party that is genuinely — both formally and substantively — led by someone else? The same legislative provision referenced above includes a third paragraph stating: “The organization and activities of the party must serve the free functioning of the democratic system. A ruling that a political party’s activities do not serve the free functioning of the democratic system may only be made when there is a conviction at any judicial level of parliamentary candidates, founding members, or former presidents for the offences outlined in Articles 134, 187, and 187A of the Penal Code.”
Consequently, based on this provision, Kasidiaris’ participation as a parliamentary candidate is highly likely to result in the Supreme Court blocking the party from competing — a decision it would be called upon to make approximately three weeks before election day.
What Thanasis Kontogeorgis and Pavlos Marinakis said
On the political front, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Thanasis Kontogeorgis stressed (on Ertnews) that “democracy must always do everything in its power to protect itself from those who oppose and undermine it,” adding that in this case “there is a specific legal framework governing who may serve as party leader or run in elections through a frontman — and that will be decided by the competent division of the Supreme Court.” Earlier (on SKAI), government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis recalled that “under our government, and through our own legislative initiatives, an institutional framework was established enabling the Supreme Court to bar parties led by individuals convicted of criminal organization from participating in elections.”
