Greek Anarchists Attack New Democracy Party Polling Station

Polling station in the Nea Filadelfeia suburb of Athens during a New Democracy party leadership vote was attacked by 15 people who threw paint-filled shuttlecocks, destroyed ballot boxes and spoiled ballot papers, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Members of the Greek anarchist group Rubicon have caused mayhem at a polling station in the Nea Filadelfeia suburb of Athens during a New Democracy party leadership vote, local media said Sunday.

The station was attacked by 15 people who threw paint-filled shuttlecocks, destroyed ballot boxes and spoiled ballot papers, the Greek Proto Thema newspaper reported.

The center-right New Democracy party has been holding the second and final round of its leadership election on Sunday. The attackers shouted "Teboneras lives," witnesses said. Nikos Teboneras, a mathematics teacher and a teachers' union activist, was killed by a New Democracy member on January 9, 1991, during a student protest at an occupied school.

"People dressed in black clothes, wearing masks and helmets, caused havoc. They then left on motorcycles," a witness said, according to the report. The anarchist group Rubicon later took responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website. No other incidents were reported during the election.

Early March, members of the Rubicon group seized an office belonging to Greece's ruling Syriza party. The group demanded to close maximum security prisons and free those detained in connection with the case of Conspiracy of the Fire Nuclei radical group who had been on a hunger strike.