Golden Dawn MP hits opponent, live on TV YouTube/hellenicbusiness

Greek talk shows are by nature combustible affairs. But rarely have they witnessed anything quite as shocking as the moment when a leading member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party launched a physical assault on two female politicians.

Ten days before the debt-stricken nation goes to the polls in an election that will not only decide Greece's fate but quite possibly the course of Europe too, the attack, captured on live TV, involved Ilias Kasidiaris, a high profile member of Golden Dawn, lashing out at two prominent leftwing MPs – all part of a seven-strong panel attending the popular Good Morning Greece TV show.

The nation that triggered Europe's debt drama is now a boiling cauldron. In the third year of its worst crisis since the second world war, it has reached the point where fury becomes violence.

Within hours of a state prosecutor issuing an arrest warrant for Kasidiaris, word of the unprecedented punch-up had travelled across the country. And in the tavernas and cafeneia of villages and towns, on radio and TV channels, the overarching question was: is this the beginning of something worse to come?

In an atmosphere bristling with the discordant feelings of anger and fear, the assault on Rena Dourou and Liana Kanelli, deputies with the radical Syriza and KKE communist parties, has added an explosive element to an election campaign that is already electric and has also illuminated the dark role of Golden Dawn.

Kasidiaris, the party's 31-year-old spokesman, first turned on Dourou, hurling a glass of water into her face, for daring to suggest that Golden Dawn "would take the country back 500 years" if they were elected.

He then turned his fists on Kanelli when the communist MP stood up in protest. Within minutes of the talk show's presenter, Giorgos Papadakis, intervening to break up the brawl, the MP had fled.

Across Greece's deeply divisive political landscape there was agreement that the extraordinary incident, replayed on TV channels throughout the day, had unmasked Golden Dawn for what it really is: a group of intolerant extremists who resort to violence to make their point.

Across the political spectrum, politicians said that the party, voted into parliament in last month's inconclusive poll for the first time since the collapse of military rule, had revealed its true colours. From garnering a mere 0.46% three years ago, the extreme rightwing party captured 7% of the vote in what was widely interpreted as a protest against mainstream parties enforcing unpopular austerity measures in return for EU-IMF funds keeping the moribund Greek economy afloat.

"Now that they have seen what this party is really about, Greeks will have no alibi to vote for them again," said Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a former conservative New Democracy minister who also participated in the talk show. "I, personally, will never take part in a debate with a member of Golden Dawn again."

Several hours after the incident, with the group still resolutely refusing to apologise, two MPs with the socialist Pasok party were attacked by Golden Dawn supporters as they campaigned in northern Greece.

In a statement KKE, the communist party of Greece, appealed to "workers, young people and pensioners" who voted for Golden Dawn to abandon the extremists. A spokesman said the stridently xenophobic group had used its anti-immigrant, anti-bailout platform to hoodwink Greeks into voting for it.

Led by Nikos Michaloliakos, and attracting an eclectic mix of soldiers, shepherds, workers and low-income professionals, Golden Dawn has fiercely denied any association with neo-Nazism – despite its embrace of Third Reich paraphernalia and its symbol bearing an uncanny resemblance to the swastika.

In recent months, and especially in the weeks that have elapsed between Greece's two ballots, the party has been linked to a number of attacks on migrants, liberals, human rights activists and journalists, particularly women.

Michaloliakos, an open sympathiser of the 1967-74 colonels' regime, says such accusations are part of a conspiracy conducted by the "filthy media" against a political force that is intent on breaking with the corrupt and crooked policies of the past and bringing a "new golden dawn" to Greece.

With Golden Dawn's ratings dropping to under 5%, none have been more vociferous in their denial of the party's links with fascist elements than Kasidiaris, a weightlifting enthusiast who served in the Greek military's special forces before joining the party.

The MP stands accused of participating in an armed robbery that saw a Greek postgraduate student being fatally stabbed in 2007. Mention of his alleged complicity appears to have set off Kasidiaris during the talk show appearance that has highlighted Greece's teetering position on the edge of dysfunction and despair.

Immigrants bear the brunt

Greece's huge immigrant population has borne the brunt of the tidal wave of anger and despair that last month catapulted Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) into parliament. A surge of recent attacks in recent weeks on migrants, particularly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been blamed squarely on the neo-fascist party. Immigrants have been assaulted in their homes, on the streets, on trains and buses in and outside city centres with most requiring intensive hospital care.

Last week, far rightists were accused of an arson attack on a migrants' hostel in Athens. Ourania Michaloliakou, the daughter of Chrysi Avgi's leader, was among six masked party cadres charged with conducting a motorcycle raid against Pakistani migrants although they were later released. The party's motto is that Greece should "rid itself of such filth." Immigrant organisations say the rise in attacks has prompted a growing number of migrants to voluntarily return to their homelands.

Regarded as the most extreme of Europe's rightwing parties, Chrysi Avgi denies accusations of neo-Nazism. But Nikos Michaloliakos, the party's leader has publicly questioned the veracity of Nazi gas chambers and concentration camps and Chyrsi Avgi symbols have been found on vandalised memorials commemorating Greek Jewry. Over the past year the group has been blamed for a rash of arson attacks on cemeteries and synagogues in Athens, Salonika and Crete. Gay clubs in Athens have also been attacked.

With his high-pitched voice and penchant for colourful language, Michaliakos was long dismissed as an eccentric curiosity, who mattered little in an era where memories of far-right governance had been firmly eclipsed by the tenets of democracy. With his party set to re-enter parliament that is very much no longer the case.