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Journalists covering President Carlos Papoulias meetings over the weekend met sitting down the leader of Golden Dawn Nikos Mihaloliakos. He visited the presidency within the context of negotiations for forming a coalition government in Greece, since none of the parties in parliament had won a majority vote a week ago.

Upon Mihaloliakos' entry into the presidential palace, the media representatives squatted and some raised their hands behind their heads like hostages. Thus, they expressed their protest against the behaviour and customs of war, which Golden Dawn tried to impose on journalists during its first press conference as a parliamentary party. The incident known as "Stand to attention!" amazed local media representatives as well as their foreign counterparts. They were ordered to either honour Mihaloliakos by standing up upon the leader’s entry into the hall or to immediately leave. A representative of the extreme-right party gave the order, shouting "Stand up! Stand up all of you! Stand all to honour." According to eyewitnesses, some of those who did not want to stand up were pulled by the hand to be raised to their feet.

During his visit to the presidential palace, Mihaloliakos did not come with his personal security, he was good tempered and did not pay particular attention to the protest of the journalists. We are looking forward to the next conference of Golden Dawn to understand whether the trend "Class, stand up! Class, to attention!" will continue.

After the meeting with Carlos Papoulias Mihaloliakos said, that Golden Dawn will not support any coalition government, which wants to keep the Memorandum of financial assistance. He insisted on a caretaker government with a prime minister, enjoying broad international support in order to "eradicate" the Memorandum from its base. He also emphasized that the European Union must assume its responsibility in the issue of illegal immigration and Greece should trigger the creation of an exclusive economic zone.

Beyond the above-mentioned requirements, the views of Golden Dawn for the development of the Greek economy largely resemble those of SYRIZA. They also see Greece going ahead without a bailout agreement, with nationalized banks and public money generously spent for social activity. Moreover, the national socialists (as they defined themselves) believe that Greece should get rid of all foreign business representatives such as major supermarkets, shops and companies.