Golden Dawn
Leader of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party Nikolaos Mihaloliakos gestures to supporters before a distributions of goods to "Greeks only" at their Athens offices (Reuters) Reuters

Greek journalists and politicians have reacted strongly to the fatal stabbing of an anti-fascist hip-hop singer, allegedly by a member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

Pavlos Fyssas, nicknamed Killah P, died after being stabbed outside a café in the Keratsini area west of Athens. Police arrested a 45-year-old member of Golden Dawn and raided its headquarters in the Greek capital.

Some reports indicate that the suspect told his wife to throw away his Golden Dawn party card when he realised that police were looking for him. Authorities found the evidence in a garbage bag outside the 45-year-old's residence in Nikaia, south-eastern Attica.

Public order minister Nikos Dendias said the killing and recent violence involving the party "shows in the clearest possible way the intentions of the neo-Nazi creation".

"I am shaken by the event," Dendias said.

Following the death of Fyssas, Nikos Xydakis argued in Greek newspaper Ekathimerini that the country has hit its "Red Line" as far as Golden Dawn is concerned.

"September 18, 2013, must be seen as a wake-up call for Greek democracy, the country's institutions and its citizens," he wrote. "The murder of 34-year-old musician Pavlos Fyssas in Keratsini by extremists is the culmination of a wave of violent activities over the past few days which began with attacks on Greek Communist Party members in Perama, carried out by alleged supporters of Golden Dawn."

Last week, 50 men wearing black T-shirts and bearing the Golden Dawn logo rounded up communist members in Perama, south-west of Athens, who were putting up posters ahead of a planned youth festival.

Greek government spokesman Simos Kedikoglu condemned the attack and described the party's behaviour as an attempt to create "civil-war-like events".

"This is a case of destabilising the rule of law, a practical denial of democracy, a logical extension of the political practices of those who deny the Holocaust and that people were killed at the Athens Polytechnic uprising against the junta in 1973," Xydakis continued.

Golden Dawn spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris denied any involvmenet and described the stabbing as a "heinous crime".

Party MP Michalis Avranitis said the victim and the suspect had a brawl over a football match on TV.

"Yes, this man, as it turns out, has declared himself to be a member of Golden Dawn. But Golden Dawn has 1 million supporters. If in a restaurant, two drunken idiots have a fight and someone is stabbed, should we look at their ideology and blame that?" Avranitis said.