“The ultimate goal of Golden Dawn is for the creation of a one-party system in which the state and party will be one and the same, with the former subservient to the latter. This system would prevail through the transmission and spread of the party’s ideas throughout society and with as great as possible penetration of state institutions, i.e. the police and the military…” the former Golden Dawn member was reported to have testified to magistrates.
The testimony was provided in the context of the ongoing criminal investigation of the party and its leadership who stand accused of establishing and running a criminal organisation, among other charges. Recently parliament voted to suspend the parliamentary immunity of leader Nikos Michaloliakos and other high-ranking MPs who have been imprisoned pending their trials.
The former official reportedly presented himself voluntarily to magistrates several days ago and testified about the structure, goals and methods of the party. According to reports he was a member of Golden Dawn from 2005 until the end of 2013 and was a parliamentary candidate for the party in the May and June 2012 general elections which saw the neo-fascist party enter parliament for the first time with over 6% of the vote.
The former official’s testimony is seen as particularly valuable to the case as it the first time a high-ranking member has appeared before magistrates and willingly testified against the party.
“The people of Golden Dawn do not care about money or positions, only for their ideas to prevail. The state for us was the party machinery of Golden Dawn. It is from there that the idea springs of a fight with the aim, not of a change in government, but of a change in the system of government.” he said.
When asked about the methods employed by Golden Dawn in order to further its goals, the one-time MP candidate said, “Aside from the usual methods which all of the parties employed – that is the use of print and online party propaganda, many times violence was the means for achieving goals. For example, from the point that the state did not, as Golden Dawn would have wished, move ahead with the removal of immigrants, any means that made their lives difficult – was not only acceptable but was demanded for the good of the nation… I was never present when a direct order was given for an attack, however there was a general understanding that when we attack foreigners, not only would we suffer no consequences, but on the contrary we would be rewarded. In any case those attacks were a kind of badge of honour.”
According to reports, in his testimony to the two magistrates the witness described his decision to join Golden Dawn as ‘wrong but conscious.’ He also stated that when, a year ago, he asked in writing to be removed from the general secretariat he received a text message from the the daughter of Mr Michaloliakos saying that the General Secretary of the party, “does not desire that.”
However that blunt message was only the beginning, with the witness reportedly testifying that “from that day onward I became the systematic recipient of every manner of threats against my life and of ruthless psychological warfare.”
“The attempt to question my mental health had already begun in order to break me down as an individual,” he said adding that, “similar tactics and methods of at least social annihilation have followed every departure of a member, including even prominent Golden Dawn officials such as Periandros, Bibos, Zafeiropoulos and other less well-known people.”
When the witness was asked to comment on statements made by Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos and other party officials claiming that they condemn all manner of violence, he said that he considered it a joke to even answer those statements adding that they were “totally hypocritical.”
Of interest was also the testimony the witness provided regarding the multitude of videos kept by the upper levels of the Golden Dawn’s hierarchy, many of which have been seized as evidence. “There is audio-visual content from every Golden Dawn event which appears to be a recorded as a souvenir among comrades, as it was presented to us, but was effectively used as a means of profiling and quasi-blackmail.”
The former MP candidate stressed to magistrates that he had not taken part in violent attacks perpetrated by the group adding, “In any case I was not coerced to because my role was different. I knew very well from other cases of what the consequences would be for me of a display of any trace that I was distancing myself… My participation was wrong, but conscious.”
When asked if the murder of Pavlos Fyssas helped push him to leave the party he answered: “I was not at all surprised by that murder. When the Pavlos Fyssas crime was committed I was already receiving threats about my own life. As such I had already decided on my departure and was waiting for the right time and method.”
Finally, regarding the the ‘chief’, his relationship with members and his oversight of their activities, the former official said, “The leader has complete oversight in the sense that the individuals who have the authority to organise anything, are the people completely loyal to the leader and do not conceive of doing anything outside his orders. Not out of fear of the consequences but due to their absolute faith.”