Thessaloniki mayor says he ‘will not be intimidated’

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris struck a defiant tone in a Twitter post on Monday night regarding an attack he suffered over the weekend by far-right nationalists who threw bottles at the 75-year-old, pushed him to the ground and kicked him.

“As long as I am mayor, I will not allow Thessaloniki to go back to the time of darkness and scandal,” Boutaris said.

He comment is seen as an apparent dig against the northern port city’s former regional governor, Panagiotis Psomiadis, who has been linked to a number of corruption and embezzlement cases, and who publicly accused the mayor of “selling out Macedonia” just moments before he was assaulted at a ceremony marking the massacre of ethnic Greeks by Turkey.

Boutaris also posted a video of his speech to the Municipal Council on Monday, in which he said that he would persevere with his efforts to transform Thessaloniki into a “true metropolis of the Balkans.”

“We will not back down. We will not be intimidated, by anyone,” he added.