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Ilias Kasidiaris, once a leading figure in the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, is set to walk free from Domokos Prison on September 15, 2026, at noon, according to his lawyer, Vasso Pantazi. In a statement, that was released on Friday, she claims that the far-right former politician had “completed the entirety of his sentence without an irrevocable conviction and that he plans to address his political intentions at a press conference after his release.” The question now dividing legal circles in Athens is whether that release means he can run again for office, which Kasidiaris himself is already signaling that he intends to try.

The former MP was convicted by a three member Athens Court of Appeals in October 2020 for directing a criminal organization, over his role atop Golden Dawn, a party the courts found had operated as a criminal enterprise. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. In the same trial leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos and a string of other former Golden Dawn members were convicted over the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas and the party’s activities.

What has the Supreme Court already ruled on?

In 2023, the Supreme Court issued two rulings that blocked Kasidiaris from standing in that year’s elections. Judicial sources who spoke to TO BHMA describe those rulings as a strong precedent that will be difficult for him to overcome.

Greece held two general elections in 2023, in May and June, after the first vote failed to produce a government. Kasidiaris tried to run in the May election under the banner of National Party Greeks, and the Supreme Court blocked it. For the June rerun, he backed and run with a different of configuration of independent candidates, but the Supreme Court blocked that attempt too, on the same grounds.

Crucially, according to legal scholars, the court’s reasoning went beyond the fact of Kasidiaris’s conviction. The judges found that a party effectively led by Kasidiaris promoted positions inconsistent with the free functioning of a democratic system, pointing to the incitement or justification of violence, totalitarian ideology, and racist and intolerant views. The rulings established two related bans: Kasidiaris cannot formally lead a party, and he cannot direct one from behind the scenes while someone else holds the title on paper.

The Spartans playbook

The 2023 rulings leave one path open. They do not stop Kasidiaris from running as an independent candidate in a single electoral district. Judicial sources expect him to pair that path with a maneuver he has already used once.

On June 8, 2023, just 13 days before the elections that year, Kasidiaris announced his support for the Spartans, a previously obscure far right party. The endorsement transformed the party’s prospects. The Spartans took fifth place with 4.68 % of the vote and 12 seats in Parliament, a result the party’s president, Vasilis Stigkas, later credited directly to the support of Kasidiaris.

The alliance did not hold. By August 2023, Stigkas was publicly accusing the party’s guiding hand of mafia style conduct, and the fallout that followed was rapid and dramatic. The Electoral Court found in 2025 that Kasidiaris, directing matters from his cell at Domokos prison, had in fact been the party’s real leader. The court also annulled the election of three MPs, which led to the formal dissolution of the party’s parliamentary group.

Judicial sources told TO BHMA they expect Kasidiaris to attempt a similar arrangement again: standing as an independent while a separate party moves through the Supreme Court’s certification process without any formal link to him, only declaring an alliance once that process is complete.

A second legal battle: how long is the sentence, really

A separate and more technical dispute could also stand in Kasidiaris’s way, according to constitutional law scholar Nikos Alivizatos, who addressed the question on Mega TV station. The discussion was prompted partly by the far right AfD party’s strong showing in Germany’s Saxony Anhalt state election, which revived a broader debate over how liberal democracies can guard against extremist movements without curbing political rights.

Alivizatos pointed to a 2023 law that bars anyone convicted of leading a criminal organization from running for office for as long as their sentence lasts. The legal question, he said, is what that final phrase actually means: the length of the sentence a court imposed, or the shorter time a prisoner ends up serving in practice. Under Greek law, prisoners typically become eligible for release after serving three fifths of their sentence, with credit for factors such as work performed in custody often reducing that further. Alivizatos also noted that under the Greek Constitution, stripping someone of their political rights outright requires an irrevocable court judgment, one upheld through the Supreme Court and no longer subject to appeal, a process he said can take considerable time.

Alivizatos left no doubt about his own reading of that question. The length the court imposed is what counts, not the time actually served, he said, meaning Kasidiaris could -under his interpretation- remain barred even after his release. But he was equally clear that this matter can only be settled by the courts. In particular, it falls to the Supreme Court, the same body that certifies electoral candidates, to decide whether Kasidiaris meets the legal conditions to appear on a ballot, just as it did in 2023.

Building an audience before the courts rule

While the legal questions remain unresolved, Kasidiaris has spent his final months in prison laying the groundwork for a comeback. In July, during a period of leave, he opened new offices on Kleisthenous Street in Omonoia, in Central Athens drawing a crowd made up largely of young men. The same month his profile got an unexpected boost when Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk, who routinely supports far-right figures around the world, shared an X post about Kasidiaris and commented “This is messed up” regarding his imprisonment.

George Samaras, an assistant professor of public policy at King’s College London who studies the Greek far right, told newspaper TA NEA that Musk’s mention lent Kasidiaris a degree of international credibility.

Kasidiaris maintains an active and largely public presence on X, gives interviews to mainstream journalists and former Spartans lawmakers, and sees his statements amplified by sympathetic media outlets and online forums, where supporters respond in tones that range from celebratory to menacing. Some of that activity appears automated, though genuine supporter accounts are also active. He additionally runs an online store selling his own books, on subjects ranging from Alexander the Great to the Covid 19 pandemic.

According to TA NEA’s reporting Samaras estimated that a new Kasidiaris led party could match or exceed the Spartans’ 2023 result, potentially reaching 7 to 8 percent of the vote. He pointed to public anger at the political establishment and the apparent decline of the new party  Hope For Democracy led by Maria Karystianou as factors working in Kasidiaris’s favor. Asked how the Kasidiaris of 2026 differs from the one who rose to prominence in 2012, Samaras said that the substance might not have changed much, but the packaging has. The nazi symbols might have disappeared, but Kasidiaris conviction is treated as a badge of honor by a segment of his supporters.

With information from TO BHMA, TA NEA