Former Golden Dawn MP denies being a neo-Nazi

The first of some 18 former lawmakers belonging to the extreme-right Golden Dawn party to take the stand in the final phase of a trial which began in 2015 claimed on Wednesday that he is not a neo-Nazi but a Greek nationalist who despises Germans.

Michail Arvanitis, who along with his party’s entire parliamentary caucus in the 2012-13 period faces charges of running a criminal organization, said that he reveres the “great” Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas who ruled Greece from 1936 to 1941 and has “nothing to do with Nazis.”

He added though that national socialism went well “socially in Germany.”