No cauliflower au gratin for Christmas

Dear reader,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece.

An 18-year-old man was arrested for severely injuring a police officer last week. The policeman is still in critical condition and lost a leg. Police officers protested for their injured colleague. The government announced (once more) measures to tackle hooligan violence, yet the problem runs deep.   

Food inflation keeps rising in the country. A comparison with last year’s prices is shocking. The Greeks appear to cut down not only on cultural services but also crucially on medical examinations as 16.7% of them were not able to receive them - the highest share in the EU, Eurostat revealed.   

While the international Press reported that the ‘Qatar Gate’ investigation might be at risk as suspects “turn the tables on prosecution,” investigative reports in Greece revealed more on the ‘Greek Connection,’ allegedly involving two Greek EU Commissioners and two Greek shipowners. 

An 18-year-old arrested, a policeman amputated 

An 18-year-old man was arrested (Opens in a new window) after confessing that he threw the flare against the policeman who was still struggling for his life at the hospital. He had his leg mutilated (Opens in a new window) this week. 

The police arrested the suspect after evaluating relevant evidence. The 18-year-old was reportedly among the 424 people prosecuted from the stadium. For these 424 people, who were reportedly (Opens in a new window) kept incommunicado for hours, ND Citizen Protection sector head Ioanna Gelestathi tweeted (Opens in a new window):

“The mothers who had been waiting outside the police department knew they would have their children back shortly. So, why were they protesting? And also like bullies? Don’t they want the wanna-be murderer of another mum’s child to be found, [a mum’s] who is waiting outside the ICU and doesn’t know if she will have him back?”

In his statement (Opens in a new window) on Thursday, the alleged perpetrator admitted he participated in the riot. Yet, he claimed he did not intend to cause any injury, but as he did not know how to use a flare, the flare went downwards, hit the ground, and injured the policeman who was standing some 70 meters away. He also said (Opens in a new window) he had just gone to watch the game, and when he saw many people exiting the venue, he joined them. Then, a person wearing a full face gave him a flare and told him to throw it.