The Minister of Citizen Protection, Yiannis Oikonomou, spoke to ERT about the measures announced yesterday by the Prime Minister for fan violence, after the bloody incidents in New Philadelphia.

The minister emphasized that the problem is dealing with criminal behavior with a sports background, saying that “no measure alone can eradicate delinquency.”

“The measures we announced a year ago had a positive impact. They did not eliminate delinquency, nor can the tightening of penalties or any measure by itself eliminate delinquency,” noted the minister.

“The measures we took on the occasion of Alki’s murder resulted in the arrest of the perpetrators and these penalties,” he added, saying that the sports law allows for severe penalties to be imposed when incidents occur away from the stadiums.

The successes of ELAS are more than the failures

“ELAS’ successes, which are more than failures, are taken for granted. ELAS must deal with crime and delinquency in order to give the citizen a sense of security. When failures occur, we must recognize them and not hide behind our finger.”

Regarding the errors and omissions he stated that more things and additional action are needed.

“We highlight the mistakes and deal with them” said Mr. Economou saying that the seven officers removed won’t be the only ones but he is waiting for the EDE of the Hellenic Police for the attribution of responsibilities.

“We highlighted the failure (of EL.AS.) from the first moment and we will take responsibility very soon” noted the minister, among other things.

“A sequence of mistakes was made at the AEK stadium, but that does not mean that we have a broken police force,” noted the minister, saying that the mistakes will be corrected.

There was information that was not properly managed by ELAS, Mr. Economou admitted.