Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was attacked this Friday night in a restaurant in Athens, breaking his nose while having dinner with members from all over Europe of the DiEM25 political movement.
According to the newspaper ekathimerini.coma small group burst into the premises of the restaurant in the Greek capital, in the Exarchia district, shouting aggressively and falsely accusing Varoufakis of, as finance minister in the Syriza government, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, having signed the financial rescue of Greece with the troika.
Varoufakis — current secretary general of the left-wing Greek political party MeRA25 (European Realist Disobedience Front), which is part of the pan-European political movement DiEM25 (Movement Democracy in Europe 2025, which he launched) — got up to address the members of the group, but he was attacked and his nose was broken while they were filming the scene with a mobile phone.
The deputy of the Greek left was transported to the Evangelismos hospital, in the center of the capital.
In the social network Twitter, the spokesman of the Government, Giannis Oikonomou, reacted almost immediately, writing: “We categorically condemn the attack on the secretary of the [partido] MeRA25, Mr. Y. Varoufakis”. “Banditry has no place in our democracy and no form of violence is tolerated,” he added.
“The Greek police will do whatever is necessary for the perpetrators to face justice,” Oikonomou said in the next message.
The Athenian quarter of Exarchia is widely known as a stronghold of anarchists, explain the digital newspaper ekathimerini.com, adding that “leftists are not tolerated any more than rightists”.