Mat riot police officer was injured during an incident outside the municipal cultural centre in the Zographou district of Athens on Monday afternoon, where deputy employment minister Anna Dalara was speaking, police said.
A crowd of about 100 people gathered outside the cultural centre and jeered Dalara as she showed up for the event, while they also threw plastic bottles of water and rocks against a riot police contingent that had been dispatched to the venue for precautionary reasons.
The riot police made limited use of chemicals to disperse the crowd, while reinforcements also arrived.
The protestors remained outside the venue throughout Dalara's address, then dispersed at about 9:15 p.m.
Speaking on a private radio station on Tuesday, government spokesman Yiorgos Petalotis once again accused the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza parliamentary alliance) for the incident, claiming that the "protagonists" were "members of Syriza who attempted to cancel a Pasok party gathering".
"Such targeting could lead to other actions. I pay no attention, because it comes from politically desperate people. Syriza is comprised of components that act with anything but peaceful intentions," Petalotis said.
Petalotis himself had been the target of a similar incident last week when he was trapped inside a senior citizens' centre (Kapi) in the Athens suburb of Argyroupolis on Thursday evening by jeering protestors as he was addressed an open political event by the ruling Pasok party. The government spokesman had pointed again to Syriza as being behind the Argyroupolis incident.
ANA
