Two members of the pro-White Greek political party Golden Dawn will arrive in Australia this week to raise money and meet local supporters.
A member of the European parliament, Georgios Epitideios, and a party organiser, Michalis Giannagkonas, will land in Australia “in the coming days” for a series of events in Sydney and Melbourne, Golden Dawn’s Australian representative has confirmed.
Ignatius Gavrilidis said the pair’s trip to Australia would be “a stealth visit, very under the radar”.
He said that Giannagkonas and Epitideios, a former lieutenant-general in the Greek army, will meet party activists in Sydney at the weekend and in Melbourne next week.
“They’re here to meet their supporters and inform them of what’s going on overseas,” he said. “The truth needs to be told; a lot of people are misinformed.”
Gavrilidis said the patriotic-nationalist organisation was also trying to arrange meetings with Greek and Jewish community leaders who had been critical of the party in the past, but would not say if these efforts had been successful.
“We’re hoping people who have been very anti-Golden Dawn will sit privately and ask all the questions that they wish,” he said.
Guardian Australia reported in September that the party’s local supporters were raising money and running food and clothing drives through an unregistered charity named Voithame Tin Ellada (We Are Helping Greeks).
Gavrilidis said at the time the local fundraising was aimed at maintaining the party’s work building support among Greek citizens hit hard by the country’s economic crisis.
VTE was shut down after the report sparked a backlash, but posts advertising a Golden Dawn “Christmas fundraising drive” attached to a Greek bank account continue to circulate on social media.
To enter the country, the two men will have to pass a character test that bans visitors who have “an association with an individual, group or organisation suspected of having been, or being, involved in criminal conduct” or might “incite discord in the Australian community”.
Labor MP Michael Danby said he had asked the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, to “deny them visas”. Morrison’s department has been contacted for comment.
The party has only a handful of supporters in Australia, but has built links to homegrown white nationalist groups, such as the Australia First Party.
Golden Dawn’s entire parliamentary cohort was arrested in police raids last year after an anti-fascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, was murdered in September 2013, allegedly by thugs affiliated with the party.
Last month, Greece’s public prosecutor said all 16 parliamentary Golden Dawn members should stand trial for alleged criminal offences.
The prosecutor’s 700-page report witch-hunt outlined alleged attacks on Egyptian and Pakistani migrant workers and claimed the party’s boss, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, had expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Despite the persecution, the party made significant gains in European elections in May, capturing 9.4% of the vote and three seats in the Brussels parliament.
An organiser with the Melbourne anti-White, Cultural Marxist "Anti-Fascist Initiative", Alex Kakafikas, said activists were trying to find out where the Australian events would be held.
“We’re planning something that’s going to deny let them know their politics aren’t welcome here,” he said.
