{"id":31905,"date":"2017-01-18T01:28:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T01:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/far-right-mp-storms-athens-school-over-refugee\/"},"modified":"2017-01-18T01:28:11","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T01:28:11","slug":"far-right-mp-storms-athens-school-over-refugee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/far-right-mp-storms-athens-school-over-refugee\/","title":{"rendered":"Far-right MP storms Athens school over refugee classes"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Golden Dawn politician and his far-right supporters threaten staff for plans to offer classes to refugee children.}<\/p>\n

Dozens of far-right supporters led by a member of Greece’s parliament have stormed a school in the capital, Athens, threatening staff against plans to provide classes to refugee children, according to Greek offficials.<\/p>\n

Yiannis Lagos, an MP with the Golden Dawn far-right outfit, and other party members hurled abuse and acted with aggressive behaviour towards teachers at the state-run elementary school in Perama, Greece\u2019s education ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

“Today’s acts by the Golden Dawn members … will not affect the operation of the school for the refugee children,” said Yiannis Pantis, the ministry’s general secretary.<\/p>\n

“Instances of violence and racism have no place in a school environment.”<\/p>\n

Golden Dawn, an anti-immigrant party, is the third biggest political player in Greece, a country still down on its knees after more than six years of deepening recession.<\/p>\n

The party has taken advantage of a protest vote against domestic political failures and internationally imposed austerity, polling just 0.3 percent in 2009 to winning almost seven percent in the country’s last general election in 2015.<\/p>\n

Many of its MPs, including Lagos, and other party members are facing trial on charges that Golden Dawn is run as a criminal organisation.<\/p>\n

They have now been freed after the expiration of an 18-month imprisonment period withour trial.<\/p>\n

‘Punches, abuse’<\/p>\n

The Golden Dawn members entered the school during a meeting between local officials, teachers and parents who were scheduled to discuss plans to offer after school classes to 25 refugee children who live in a nearby camp.<\/p>\n

After storming the school, the Golden Dawn members theatened those attending the meeting and punched some teachers and parents, according to Greek media reports.<\/p>\n

Witnesses also alleged that police stood outside the school but failed to act to prevent the attack.<\/p>\n

“Today\u2019s attack by Golden Dawn against parents and teachers in Perama – led by indicted MP Lagos – is a provocation for the entire Greek society,” Takis Giannopoulos, a member of the Greek activist group Anti-Nazi Zone, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

“Golden Dawn denies education to 25 children who escaped war.<\/p>\n

“This fascism cannot be tolerated.”<\/p>\n

The attack was also condemned by several Greek political parties.<\/p>\n

An estimated 62,000 refugees and migrants are currently stranded in Greece following a wave of border closures across Europe after a controversial agreement between the European Union and Turkey in March 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Golden<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Golden Dawn politician and his far-right supporters threaten staff for plans to offer classes to refugee children.} Dozens of far-right supporters led by a member of Greece’s parliament have stormed a school in the capital, Athens, threatening staff against plans to provide classes to refugee children, according to Greek offficials. Yiannis Lagos, an MP with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31905"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31905"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}