Dimitris Stratoulis, deputy of leftwing Greek party, set upon at football match in Athens on Sunday night
Greek politicians have denounced an attack on a prominent leftist MP amid mounting fears of growing extremist violence in the country. With the main opposition group, Syriza, going so far as to describe the assault on its deputy Dimitris Stratoulis as a "brutal assassination attempt", Athens' tripartite governing coalition moved swiftly to condemn the incident. "Any kind of attack and threat is unacceptable in our democracy," the government spokesman, Simos Kedikoglou, said. "Violence has no place in our culture."
Stratoulis was set upon by three men in their 30s as he attended a football match with his son at the Olympic stadium in Athens on Sunday night. Recognising him during the half-time break, the assailants are reported to have said "now we are going to kill you" before claiming they were members of the far-right group Golden Dawn and kicking and punching the politician in the head.
Golden Dawn vehemently denied it was behind the assault and launched legal action against Stratoulis for referring to the organisation as a "gang of criminals". The ultra-nationalists, who have become Greece's fastest-growing party on the back of anti-austerity sentiment, have decried "the left-wing politicians who foment violence".
"[They] should stop using the name of Golden Dawn," the party said in a statement.
With social tensions spiralling amid record levels of unemployment and poverty, the incident has highlighted concern over the growing friction between left and right as the debt-stricken nation navigates its worst crisis in modern times.
Golden Dawn, whose party logo has been compared to the swastika and whose rhetoric is unabashedly xenophobic, has been linked to a dramatic rise in racist attacks across Greece. Clashes between the extremists and anti-establishment leftists have also proliferated with commentators raising the alarm over a potential civil war.
The Golden Dawn MP Ilias Panagiotaros, who filed the suit against Stratoulis on behalf of the party, recently told the BBC: "Greek society is ready – even though no one likes this – to have a fight: a new type of civil war. On the one side there will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our country to be as it used to be, and on the other side illegal immigrants, anarchists and all those who have destroyed Athens several times."
Earlier this year, Golden Dawn's spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris assaulted two leftwing female MPs on live TV, repeatedly slapping one of the politicians across the cheek and throwing a glass of water at the other. Instead of waning, the party's popularity ratings rose.
Expressing consternation over the latest attack, the media called on the Greek government to take immediate action. In a front-page editorial the authoritative newspaper, Ta Nea, insisted that condemning the assault was "not enough".
"Uncontrollable violence is becoming part of everyday life in Greece," it wrote. "Dealing with Golden Dawn is a crucial issue."
In a letter to Stratoulis, the UK-based Greece Solidarity Campaign also highlighted international concern saying:
"We have been here before – with Hitler and the Nazi party in the early 1930s. The rise of Chrysi Avgi [Golden Dawn] is the direct result of the extreme austerity measures imposed by the troika [the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank] and implemented by the Greek coalition government."
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