Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called Thessaloniki mayor Yiannis Boutaris on Monday to wish him a speedy recovery after the 75-year-old politician was assaulted on Saturday.
The prime minister, who spoke with Boutaris early on Monday morning, told a later cabinet meeting that the mayor considered the attack against him “staged” and not a spontaneous outburst.
“It grieves me to report that the mayor of Thessaloniki essentially denounces a not-spontaneous but staged event. An orchestrated attack against him by marginal elements but also people who are involved in politics, who are in the public eye, and who many times don’t form a part of the marginal rabble of far-right elements,” Tsipras said.
Tsipras informed Boutaris of the four arrests made by police and assured him that the incident will be dealt with by the government with the utmost severity, “with the mobilization on our part of all the mechanisms of democracy”.
Boutaris was physically and verbally assaulted when as he attended a remembrance ceremony for the Pontian Greek genocide being held in the square outside Thessaloniki’s White Tower on Saturday.
(Source: AMNA)
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