“When such an important event happens so close to us, in our closest regional ecosystem, it leads us to adjust our behavior in terms of surveillance, safeguards, potential targets and all that entails. We are also on the alert regarding the guarding of specific targets but also the collection of information, the cooperation with all foreign services, the increased vigilance of our own information networks, our more intense and systematic presence in the structures”, said the Minister of Protection of Politis, Yiannis Oikonomou in his statements to ACTION24.

“I make it clear that we must be alert and on increased vigilance. But this does not mean that we are in a panic or that we should go to the extreme of Islamophobia. We see, we watch with concern what is happening and what the conflict is causing because of the terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel and the Gaza Strip, and all this forces us to keep our wits about us. We are as alert as possible, but this does not mean that we should be in a panic. The whole world is worried and it is justified, we are alert, but there is no need to panic”, he added, stressing that: “any dimension of extremism in the country is constantly targeted by the prosecuting authorities. The Greek Police, all the Greek Security Authorities in collaboration with the EYP, in collaboration with our partners, are constantly monitoring the broader issue as intensively as we can. In the structures, in the organizations, in which there is a risk of some extreme elements infiltrating, with our presence and visible policing. From there, one realizes that we are talking about risks that can be caused by anyone, anywhere. There’s no reason to panic, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep our wits about us, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. Obviously we are alert, we are concerned, but we don’t have any evidence to say that we are in a panic. Whatever outbreak started to break out at some point, in some structures related to this matter, we prevented it and our forces are still there.”

In detail, the main points of the interview of the Minister of Citizen Protection:

EL.AS has an open front with anyone who questions the laws of the organized State

The Greek Police operates within the framework defined by the coordinated State. The Greek Police has no vendettas, precedents and obsessions with anyone. But he has an open front with anyone who questions the laws, with anyone who has delinquent behavior, with anyone who thinks he can question the status of our Democracy, the order and order of the State. We strive to be as efficient as possible all the time. This happened in this particular case as well: four members of the organization were arrested for a series of serious crimes they committed in New Heraklion, which was the starting point for wider incidents that took place that night. From then on, the Greek Justice, investigative and prosecutorial authorities are the ones who weigh and decide.

For penalties and their application

Many times the debate turns to whether the penalties should be toughened or toughened. Although it is not a matter of my own subject, before we look at whether we need to tighten which penalties and by how much, it is to have the penalties in place. Let’s look at the suspension, the status that exists not only in the “bachalakis”, but also in many cases where we arrest people in the context of criminal behavior with a sports background, or many times in incidents we have with specific social groups. It is no secret that there is an increased delinquency in the Roma community. We have to look at the issue regarding the suspension of the application of the penalties. Mr. Floridis is processing the data, and very soon we will have specific things in this direction that the Minister of Justice has identified very early on.

For field, pitch and link inspections

It is the same Police, which accepts the criticism and anyone can give it whatever grade they want, which controls the same fans, in the same stadiums, in Greek and European games we see completely different things. In Greek games, the same Police control the same fans and we often have the phenomena you describe. In the European games, the same Police control the same fans and nothing falls on the field.

Is it a matter of policing? Is it a question of better or worse control? We don’t bring other Police to control the European games, ours controls. No other fans come to the European games, they come themselves. So is it a police issue? I say this because there is a lot of criticism about the operational capacity, the logic and the controls of the Greek National Police. . We assist them, we provide a service to PAEs in this direction very important, we do our duty. But, beyond that, we must be cool and fair in our judgment. We accept any criticism, but I don’t like aphorisms. The situation in the Greek stadiums is not the same as it was 2.5-3-5 years ago. They pass firecrackers and sparklers. Are they getting checked, have they been in before? This is not only an issue of the Greek Police, it is wider.

Our job is to do the best possible checks so that we don’t have these kinds of issues. Always, when 30,000 people go into a stadium, and in the best control in the world when there are no turnstiles, when there are no other technological means to control them, something is always going to slip. And anyone who says otherwise is simply not realistic, not responding to reality. The issues are not so simple and the interpretations are not so simple many times.

We have made 16 arrests and the investigation by the Thessaloniki Security Service into yesterday’s incidents continues. In Thessaloniki, I remind you, we have raided links, we have sealed links. There were links, which we checked, found things and closed them. This shows the complexity of the whole issue, that the “yafkes” are not in the link buildings, but have been moved elsewhere.

The problem is more intense. It is found in houses, other haunts. It is not so simplistic to deal with. The Police caught them, they continue to search, to catch others and the Justice must use the rich institutional arsenal at its disposal so that we never see these people in the stadiums again and they suffer the penalties provided by the law.

About the incident in Exarchia

There is the very detailed announcement of the Greek Police, which is not their version, but the facts, which are confirmed by the forensic report, but also by people’s testimonies. EL.AS., a group of OPKE, was attacked by anti-authoritarians and thugs, in which it seems – based on the evidence – that the girl who was injured also participated. EL.AS he had no involvement or contact in the girl’s injury, on the contrary, both police and citizens provided her with first aid and called the EMS. While they were trying to provide her with first aid, another group of anti-authoritarians, from the opposite side, very fiercely attacked EL.AS.. These are the facts that have not been disputed by anyone so far and are confirmed. I wish everything goes well with the girl’s health and very soon she will be well.

For juvenile delinquency

Juvenile delinquency, the delinquency of minors with any background, is a very important dimension of reality. The Police is called upon to manage the last link, the avoidance of incidents, the repression, the arrests of over 1,300 minors, with young ages, recently. The issue is not police, it is educational, social. We are called to manage the failure of society, of the family, of education, when these incidents take place in schoolyards.

The lack of Greek Police personnel is perhaps our most important problem, which reflects on a number of critical services. For this, from the first moment, our main concern is to strengthen it. We are neither here to find out, nor to throw a “white towel” on the problems.

Visible policing is and will continue to improve, even if our forces are limited, even if the demands in many places are enormous. From the airport for example, where several Probationary police officers left to go back to their Schools and we need to strengthen the passport control so that we don’t have waits and we don’t have waits.

Until the Traffic Police, 17-18 people came out and today 95 came out in the center of Athens and this will be the case in the future. Until Thessaloniki where the Fly Over will start, until the daily need to deal with so many marches and demonstrations in Athens in troubled times, until dealing with organized crime, the increase in patrols. Everywhere the demands are high, everywhere there is scope for improvement and we are working in this direction.

But the issue of juvenile delinquency will obviously improve with stronger and better, visible policing – the Police have done great things in this direction, and in Maroussi, in shopping centers and elsewhere, where this delinquency is seen and shifted to other areas invisible – but the issue is not only police. It is a matter of broader interventions in a number of social sectors.

The Government aims to solve the problems of everyday life and meet the expectations of the citizens

The New Democracy faces the problems of everyday life and the expectations of the citizens. We are four months after the elections, the Greek people have decided who they want to be governed by for the next four years. We have hard work ahead of us and this is what we have to look at, how we should meet the expectations of the citizens by telling the truth and constantly facing new and I would say multidimensional challenges that we encounter around us. That’s our goal, that’s our priority, and we shouldn’t be distracted by them.

I think that citizens and society are very suspicious of all these political circles and circles of political speech and policy model that we have seen in recent years. What matters at the end of the day when they make their decisions is the political substance, they are concrete proposals and proposals with a beginning, middle and end that can be implemented. Who can provide answers to their problems. No theories, no easy words, no seduction moves, we saw these, lived them, paid for them. I think we have left all these behind us, maybe at some point we attach a little more importance to them, when something seems newer to us and suddenly arouses our interest, but the duration and to believe or to be inspired by something, I believe, is directly connected with the realistic, the realizable, the essential of a proposition, the perception we move, of what is happening in the world and what we can do as things are. How can we pave the way and make the country stronger, safer and make society look forward and push forward. This is not done with words, or with aphorisms, or with wishes. Because if this were easy and required wishes and aphorisms, others would have found them too.