Police union leader disciplined for derogatory statement about Exarchia

The union representing the Greek Police’s special guards issued a complaint Wednesday over a decision by the force to take disciplinary action against union chief Vasilios Doumas over the latter’s description of Exarchia, the central Athens neighborhood which has a reputation as an anarchist stronghold, as “the new state of Exarchistan.”

Doumas’s reaction came after POASY, the umbrella union for police officers, tried to hold a gathering in Exarchia Square to draw attention to lawlessness in the area and to the difficulties faced by police who regularly come under attack by firebomb-wielding anarchists in the area.

The government and opposition New Democracy clashed last week after authorities banned a scheduled gathering by POASY members in Exarchia. The union condemned the disciplinary action as an “effort to totally gag free and and healthy militant union rhetoric.”