A particularly intense incident of street violence erupted in central Athens just after midnight, with the epicenter being the Athens Law School building and nearby Exarcheia square, as roughly 30 unidentified suspects threw firebombs and rockets at assembled riot police and other targets.
At least 28 people were detained.
The violence comes days after police evacuated a “squat” within the law school building and after a handful of arrests related to the injury of a graduate student at a career days event at the same facility.
The violence around the law school – which is part of the Athens University – spilled over into the Exarcheia district, with cell phone videos showing riot police roughly clearing out a café in the area. Vehicles were also set ablaze near the offices of PASOK party, on Charilaou Tripouki street, a decades-old “target” of self-style anti-state anarchist groups that assemble in and around Exarcheia.
Hours later, during his weekly Sunday Facebook briefing, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis touched on the incidents, emphasizing that “universities do not belong to minorities ‘cloaking’ their criminal acts with ideologies”, but to students and educators.
