“We will be with the laws against extreme, inhuman fascist practices of anyone who imagines that they can replace the Greek State and the Greek Policeagainst anyone who imagines that they can, pretending to be the lad or the sheriff – expressing whatever syndromes, complexes or extreme beliefs they have in mind – that they can counterfeit the Authority and replace the Greek Justice”.

He said this characteristically from the floor of the Parliament, the Minister of Citizen Protection, Yiannis Oikonomou characterizing at the same time, “tragic, unacceptable and reprehensible, for elected members of parliament to take the lead in incidents of violence against immigrants, such as what happened in Evros”.

It was an occasion the topical question of the SYRIZA member of parliament, Elena Akrita, about the sad events in Evros and the capture and inhumane treatment of migrants, by civilians. “Do you think it’s reasonable to have unarmed sheriffs at our borders arresting, imprisoning, abusing and beating immigrants? There must be no tolerance for racist violence. And it must not only be rhetorical to deal with such inhumane behaviors and extreme racist activity, but there must also be a practice of words. A decisive blow must fall against all these anti-Greeks who are doing harm to the country”, pointed out Mrs. Akrita while talking about “extreme right-wing militiamen who have found a loving embrace in the party of Kyriakos Velopoulos, the Hellenic Solution”.

“No one has the right to restore the action of the Greek Police. We are a European democracy, a rule of law and in states of law it does not matter what and why, it matters how something is done. And how, it is determined only by the state with its mandated bodies. No one else has the right to substitute this function. And whoever does that will be faced with the repressive action of ELAS and with the consequences from the Greek Justice”, answered Mr. Economou.

“This also happened in the events of Evros. This is done by proactive action and dealing with those who imagine that they can, pretending to be lads, expressing whatever syndromes, complexes or extreme beliefs they have in their minds and imagine that they can copy the Authority and replace the Greek Justice. Period-dash-paragraph. We are against this behavior not only rhetorically, but we reinforce it with our attitude and with our results” added the minister and emphasized:

“What you see in Evros are not words. It is the confirmation in action of the approach we have around these unacceptable, uncharacteristic behaviors. The arrests, the surrender to the Justice, the preliminary examination by the prosecutor, the sentences he has imposed and those that will be imposed at the end of the process are not words, just as they are not words, the daily presence of the police in Evros in order to deal with to intercept anyone who imagines that he can substitute for the Authorities”.

The Minister of Citizen Protection emphasized the effective operational action of ELAS in the immigration problem, pointing out that “it has succeeded all this time, over 110,000 interceptions of illegal entries into the country, over 515 arrests of smugglers, most of whom are cruel and ruthless criminals, and 4,500 arrests of people who entered the country illegally”.

“This is the assistance of the Greek Police. Who imagines that he can discredit or restore this great work of ELAS by pretending to be the lad or the sheriff. These are funny things against which we will be merciless in every expression”, said Mr. Economou and concluded:

“The government’s view on immigration policy and more specifically on what happened in Evros is that it should be strict but fair. Let us be neither naive nor frivolous. We practice a strict but fair immigration policy, blocking illegal pathways against smugglers and illegal immigration. On the other hand, we should not be frivolous in giving the right to anyone who imagines that they can replace the constituted State, to simplistically and populistly discredit the great work done by ELAS and the other Authorities, possibly also for vote-seeking reasons – why is that is recorded – and it is tragically unacceptable and reprehensible for elected members of parliament to be the protagonists in such incidents”.