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THE MAYOR OF Greece’s second city Thessaloniki was hospitalised early this morning after an assault by suspected far-right members at a rally, officials said.
Yiannis Boutaris, 75, had to be escorted from an event commemorating the massacre of Black Sea Greeks in Turkey during and after World War I when members of the crowd turned violent.
“They were hitting me everywhere. Kicks, punches, the lot,” Boutaris told state agency ANA today. “It was a despicable attack, but I am well.”
Footage from the event shows Boutaris initially being heckled. As he starts to leave, people start throwing objects at him and he falls to the ground.
Some of the attackers tried to break the windows of his car as it sped off.
The office of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the attackers were “far-right thugs.”
A maverick politician, Boutaris has repeatedly angered hardliners in Greece with controversial statements on Macedonia, Turkey and Israel.
Among them is calling Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern Turkish state and a hate figure in Greece, a “great leader”.
How’s Greece’s economy doing?
Greece’s creditors have agreed a programme of reforms as the country’s third and final bailout comes to an end.
Athens was rescued three times by European and international creditors, preventing the country from crashing out of the Euro.
It returned to growth in 2017 after nine years of deep recession, and the bailout relief is due to end in August.
“After so many difficult years, efforts and sacrifices, Greece is finally on the home stretch,” European Union commissioner Pierre Moscovici said yesterday.
With a meeting of eurozone finance ministers set for 21 June, teams of experts from the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have met with the Greek government in recent days to discuss its privatisation drive, an overhaul of the civil service and the deregulation of the state-dominated energy market.
In a statement that gave no detail on the agreement, the EU’s executive said a staff-level accord had been reached.
“The Greek authorities aim to implement these measures as swiftly as possible in advance of the Eurogroup of 21 June 2018,” it added.
While Greece’s economy is now in better shape, successive bailouts have left it with debt levels at an unsustainable 180% of its annual economic output.
France has called for extending Greek loans by 12 years and capping interest at two percent, thereby reducing repayment by 18 billion euros.
But powerful Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor, is extremely reluctant to pare back the Greek debt pile and has demanded Athens meet strict targets even after the bailout ends in August.
“privatisation Drive” , another ” lets grab all they have” scam. Like ourselves, soon to be left with nothing to call our own.
@RJ.Fallon: beating up a 75 year old man should sort that right out…
@RJ.Fallon: we have nothing to call our own its all been given away by our treasous politicians….this republic has been sold right under our feet and stupid paddy doesnt give a f@@k.
@BananaRepublic1922:
Good.
I rather see them sold than the Irish taxpayer being on the hook for them
I worked in the semi state sector for years, my god the people in them would get some fright if there jobs were actually at risk.
@RJ.Fallon: Millionaire FF/FG politicians are just waiting for an excuse to sell IW from under our noses.
It isn’t the Greeks it’s the Chinese he’s after.
We can all sympathise with how they may feel, seeing their country being sold out from under them, but beating the ever loving sh.. it out of a 75 year old man isn’t the way to solve anything. That’s the sort of thing that makes their cause worthless, it makes them worse than those they’re angry about. A big muscled lad picking on the weakest in society, yeah that sends a great message.
With a meeting of eurozone finance ministers set for 21 June, teams of experts from the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have met with the Greek government in recent days to discuss its privatisation drive, an overhaul of the civil service and the deregulation of the state-dominated energy market.
In a statement that gave no detail on the agreement, the EU’s executive said a staff-level accord had been reached.
This is the main piece of the article that deserves attention. The people they carried out the attack were labelled as being far right wing by the office of the countries left-wing leader. A cynical person would question this.
Perhaps the attackers were people that voted for Tsipras and Syriza in 2015 and now are utterly dismayed at how their country is and sold out from under their feet.
In any event I don’t know I wasn’t there.
The sad thing is there is no end in sight, Greece cannot effectively survive in the euro it is the totally wrong currency for them.
@John Fergus: don’t get me wrong it’s tragic what happened. Those responsible for beating a 75-year-old man should be figuratively hung. That being said the official line on this is likely skewed to benefit those giving it.
@John Fergus: Currency? If your economy was a basket case to begin with, does it matter much about the currency? Interestingly, most Greeks want to stay in the Euro, apparently – go figure?
Disgusting hitting a 75 year old man.
Unforgivable.
Would it have been OK If he was 30 and not 75?
have your say