The operation started as early as 6:30 a.m. apparently while the anarchists were sleeping and could not intervene to defend their “property.” The operation was secret, even though media reporters and cameramen were informed in time.
At the same time, Athens municipality workers also removed banners hanging around the square.
“The metal container that was illegally occupying public space since 2017 has been removed, municipality workers for electricity and green worked for the better image of the square,” new Mayor of Athens Costas Bakoyannis (nephew of PM Mitsotakis) said in a statement.
The container served as a political “booth” for anti-authoritarians, media wrote.
New Democracy MP Thanos Plevris, though, means he knew better.
Πλέον ξηλώθηκε το «ΚΕΠ» των «αναρχικων» και οι σύντροφοι που λάμβαναν πληροφοριες και τεχνογνωσία για μολότοφ, λοστούς και εκρηκτικές ύλες πρεπει να αναζητήσουν αλλα σημεια συνάντησης. Το αντρο εγκληματικότητας των Εξαρχειων ξηλώνεται μερα με τη μερα.
— Θάνος Πλεύρης (@thanosplevris) September 20, 2019
“The anarchists’ information stand has been unraveled and the comrades who have received information and know-how about molotovs, hammers and explosives have to look for other meeting places. The bolthole of criminality of Exarchia is been unraveled day by day,” Plevris wrote.
Surprise! The container was not the store room for molotov coktail bombs, hammers and explosives but it served as storage for books.
Committed to his pre-election slogan to clean Exarchia from ‘lawlesnnes” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been sending policemen to the area again and again. So far he has emptied squats occupied by refugees, migrants and their “dangerous” children. Oh, And the container.
Yet, everybody knows that Exarchia is also a bolthole for drug dealers and other common criminals like illegal traders, thieves etc. In this context, media have not filmed any police operation against drugs trafficking…
But they “liberated” Exarchia from books.
Don;t get me wrong. The container was “illegally occupying public space” as the Mayor said. But going against containers or refugees with kids, that’s an easy target that serves nothing else than the government and the Prime Minister’s public relations. The real challenge is to go against real criminals and gangs that rob and attack citizens.
