Golden Dawn on Monday slammed a decision by the Greek President to hand the third exploratory mandate to a newly-formed SYRIZA splinter group, describing the gesture as a bid to undermine the power of Greece's neo-Nazi party.

“The third exploratory mandate should be handed to Golden Dawn, not to non-existing parties that have not received a single vote from the Greek people,” MP Ilias Kasidiaris, who is also the party's press spokesman, told journalists Monday.

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday invited former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, leader of the newly-established Popular Unity party, to form a new administration within three days, part of the constitutional procedure set in motion by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s resignation last week.



According to the nation's Constitution, each of the three biggest parties is, in turn, given three days to form a government. Before the emergence of Popular Unity, the third largest grouping in parliament was Golden Dawn, which holds 17 of Parliament's 300 seats.

Kasidiaris said the move amounted to a “constitutional deviation.”

“They are refusing us the exploratory mandate thinking they can in that way curb the power of Golden Dawn. However, at the elections, the people will give an answer to those who are destroying Greece,” he said.