Founded by Nikolaos Michaloliakos in the ’80s as an obscure and occultist national-socialist (Nazi) group, Golden Dawn evolved to a party with many attempts to enter parliament during the last decades. After Michaloliakos was elected in the Municipal Council of Athens in 2010, Golden Dawn gained the Media spotlight, gathering influence and supporters that led to the election of 18 Members of Paliament in 2012. At the height of its power, Golden Dawn mobilized its existing structure of strike groups (“storm batallions”), attacking migrants, communists and antifascists. The murders of Pakistani worker Sahzad Luqman and Greek rapper Pavlos Fyssas led to prosecutions for the party leader and many of his subordinates as a criminal organization in 2013. The unprecedentedly large (in defendants, cases and evidence) trial lasted from 20 April 2014 to 22 October 2020, ending with convictions for most of the accused.

As there is no provision in the Greek legal system for any party to be declared illegal, Golden Dawn continues to operate as a political party.

The party gathered 4,87% of the vote in the 2019 EU elections. I. Lagos was elected Memer of European Parliament but after the national elections he broke off, leaving the party without representation in the EP. The party also failed to elect any MP’s but maintained a 2,93% of the vote in the 2019 national elections.