Ilias Kasidiaris, the jailed former Golden Dawn spokesman, has said he intends to return to the centre of Greek politics as soon as he is released from prison, a move scheduled for Tuesday, 15 September at noon. The announcement has triggered debate among legal experts and constitutional scholars over whether he can legally lead a party or stand for parliament.
Kasidiaris was convicted at first instance in 2020 to 13 years and six months in prison for directing a criminal organisation and illegal possession of weapons. An appeal concluded last March, with the Five-Member Court of Appeal for Felonies upholding his conviction for directing a criminal organisation and setting his sentence at 13 years.
The appeal ruling also confirmed the core finding of the original verdict: that Golden Dawn, behind its institutional guise as a political party and its representation in parliament, functioned as a neo-Nazi criminal organisation with a structure, hierarchy and organised activity linked to criminal attacks.
Kasidiaris is being released after almost seven years in custody, one year in pre-trial detention and six years since his conviction, once time credited for beneficial work performed in prison was taken into account.
Legal framework governing convicted politicians
The debate centres on whether someone convicted of running a criminal organisation can join a party's leadership or stand as a parliamentary candidate after release, and whether such a party could compete in elections at all. According to legal experts, Kasidiaris will remain barred from the electoral process for years to come, with the answer resting in current legislation.
In 2023, after revelations that the real leadership of the far-right Spartans (Spartiates) party was being exercised by Kasidiaris from Domokos prison, the government introduced an amendment tightening the rules on forming electoral lists. The measure, passed by a wide majority, established that the loss of the right to form an electoral list applies for the full length of the sentence imposed, counted from the announcement of the final conviction. It also clarified that time served, or any statute of limitations on the sentence, does not affect that calculation.
Legal sources say the ban on Kasidiaris participating in elections runs from 2020 to 2033. He could still stand as an independent candidate in a single constituency, since that route does not require registering a party list, though his election to parliament is considered highly unlikely because of the 3% threshold applied nationwide.
What constitutional scholars say
Several constitutional law experts have pushed back directly against the idea that release from prison automatically clears the way for Kasidiaris to resume political activity.
Nikos Alivizatos told Mega television that release does not remove the electoral disqualification. He said the years of the sentence are the years set by the court, not the years actually served, so Kasidiaris cannot run, adding that the final word will rest with the Areios Pagos, Greece's supreme court, when it rules on party lists.
Nikos Papaspyrou, associate professor of constitutional law and director of the Constitutional Research Laboratory at the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, made a similar argument in the newspaper Ta Nea. He wrote that release from prison is irrelevant: a person convicted in this way is barred from a party's leadership for the entire length of the sentence, counted from the first-instance ruling, meaning Kasidiaris's ban runs to 2033 regardless of how the time served was calculated. He added that the presumption of innocence rules out imposing such a ban before conviction, but that if a convicted person takes part in a party's leadership, even covertly, the Areios Pagos cannot approve that party's lists, and the same applies if the party fields the convicted person as a candidate and is judged not to serve the free functioning of the democratic system. Papaspyrou agreed that Kasidiaris could stand as an independent in a single constituency, but said his election would be near impossible given the 3% nationwide threshold.
Constitutional scholar Xenophon Kontiadis made three points in a social media post. He said the Areios Pagos and Greece's Supreme Special Court have already ruled on the relevant legal questions in a series of decisions, so any answer must follow that case law rather than the interpretations of individual lawyers or of Kasidiaris himself; on that basis, he said a Kasidiaris candidacy, whether on a party list or as part of a party leadership seeking to contest elections, would only become legally possible after October 2033, with a fuller explanation due in an article the following day.
Kontiadis added that he would prefer not to have to discuss the issue or the person at all, but said Kasidiaris's views clearly resonate with part of society, not to the extent seen in other countries, though enough to make the legal question politically significant. He said the more important task was for Greece's party system and government to understand what is driving support for far-right views and to act to limit it.
He also pointed to what he called a contradiction in Kasidiaris's insistence on contesting elections, given that Kasidiaris has dismissed parliamentary politics while seeking to take part in its institutions and benefit from the state funding and privileges given to MPs and parties represented in parliament. Kontiadis said this contradiction should be highlighted alongside the record of Golden Dawn, the organisation for whose leadership Kasidiaris was convicted in October 2020. He added that after an earlier post about Germany's AfD party, he had faced what he described as an attack from trolls, bots and fake profiles, and said he had taken legal action and would not be intimidated.
Government says legal framework is complete
The overall picture from the legal commentary is that the current institutional framework is considered complete and does not require further action from the government or parliament. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis reflected that view, saying that whatever could be done had already been done through legislation.
That leaves the responsibility with the relevant department of the Areios Pagos, which will be called on to examine party statutes and electoral lists once national elections are formally called. Kasidiaris's lawyer said on 11 September that he intends to stand in elections.
