He was arrested for the first time in July 1974, during a protest outside the British embassy in Athens, against the stance of the United Kingdom toward the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

[7] He was arrested again for assaulting journalists covering the December 1976 funeral of Evangelos Mallios, a policeman who tortured people[8] during the Regime of the Colonels,[9] assassinated by the terrorist group 17N, but was released.

[10][11] The publication of the magazine ceased in April 1984, when Michaloliakos joined the National Political Union, and took over the leadership of its youth section, after a personal order of Georgios Papadopoulos.

[10][11] In May 2012, under Michaloliakos' leadership, it garnered 21 seats in Parliament during an election conducted amid Greece's severe financial crisis, and was embroiled in various controversies, attracting international attention.

[16] A particularly controversial point was Michaloliakos's denial of the existence of the gas chambers, which the Nazis used to murder Communists, Freemasons, Jews, homosexuals, and other persons during World War II.

[22] In April 2015, the trial of Michaloliakos and 68 other defendants began at the high-security Korydallos prison in Athens,[23] but was adjourned a number of times for technical reasons and to find a more suitable setting.

He was sentenced to 13.5 years in prison[6][25] but was granted early release in May 2024 following a legal request and on account of his elderly age, albeit with several conditions such as a ban on traveling outside the greater Athens area.