IT

First of all it has to do with Piraeus, the area in which the assassination took place. Piraeus is a port and a very strong working-class area. At the same time, Piraeus also is a stronghold of the Left, especially of the communist trade union front PAME which is close to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). In fact, a couple of days before Golden Dawn assassinated Pavlos, they launched a murderous attack on PAME activists in Piraeus. Luckily, nobody died.

But attacking the PAME trade unionists and several days later assassinating Pavlos Fyssas were obviously part of a strategy of Golden Dawn to move forward; it was already strong in Piraeus and wanted to take it over from the Left. I think they also wanted to prove to the big bosses in Piraeus that they can throw out the communists, leftists, and trade unions there.

Just a couple of days before Golden Dawn attacked the PAME and assassinated Pavlos Fyssas, MP Ioannis Lagos of Golden Dawn openly said: “We will throw out the communists from Piraeus because they block the development of the region with their trade unions and strikes.”

Regarding Pavlos: as I said, he was well known in the area through his leftist and antifascist music. He was living and was very active in Piraeus and people knew him. It is crystal clear that he was targeted by Golden Dawn and the assassinator, Giorgos Roupakias, executed a clear assassination command. It was no accident, Roupakias didn’t stab Pavlos by accident or chance.

Just look at how the assassination took place: in the late evening of September 17, 2013, Pavlos Fyssas and six of his friends leave the café where they were watching a soccer game. The moment they go out of the café, around twenty fascists are on the other side of the street yelling at them and following them. Pavlos and his friends turn the corner while the fascists are still following them.

Then the fascists run towards them to assault them. Pavlos shouts “run!” to his friends, and most of them run away, but two of his friends remain with him while they are assaulted by the fascists. A group of fascists assaults them, while another group builds a circle around them to hinder anybody from intervening.

At precisely this moment, Roupakias drives his car to this group, stops it next to the group, gets out of the car and directly walks towards Pavlos. He doesn’t walk towards the other two friends of Pavlos, his objective is very clear. He knows who Pavlos is and that he has to hit him, he doesn’t care about the other two. Pavlos and each of his remaining two friends are blocked by the fascists with two fascists holding one person each from both sides.

Roupakias comes from the back, puts a stranglehold on Pavlos with his left arm, takes out the knife with his right and stabs Pavlos into his right leg to hit the artery and stabs him a second and third, decisive time in the heart to be sure to get him. He takes out the knife and walks back again to his car. He gets arrested while trying to get away. Until then, no police intervene.

To sum it up: the assassination was organized and planned to the last step. The only coincidence may have been day and time. Pavlos and his friends might not have went to that café to watch the soccer game that day at that time. But I think Golden Dawn would’ve attempted to assassinate Pavlos Fyssas in any case.