In Athens, 21 Members of an Italian Neo-Fascist Group Arrested Heading to a Canceled Rally
In the international airport of Athens on Tuesday evening, a group of 21 Italian neo-fascists was detained while heading to a canceled rally. They are now being prepared for deportation due to a threat to national security, as reported by Ekathimerini.
The neo-fascists, belonging to the far-right organization CasaPound, intended to join a memorial rally on Wednesday in honor of two members of the former neo-Nazi group "Golden Dawn" who were killed in 2013 near the party's office in northern Athens.
Law enforcement agencies had received information about their trip to the Greek capital in advance. Local far-right groups had mobilized through social media and messengers, calling on European allies to join the rally as far back as summer. The police canceled the event planned for Wednesday and also prohibited gatherings planned for that day by far-right groups. So, the Italians' journey to Greece was in vain, and instead of sightseeing in Athens, they face forced return to their homeland.
This situation was certainly not appreciated by CasaPound leaders. Their leader, Gianluca Iannone, stated: "The arrest of 20 people who had just arrived by plane to attend a memorial event in honor of two young people who were brutally killed is an absolutely unacceptable situation."
CasaPound was founded in the late 1990s as a fan club for the former Italian dictator and founder of the fascist party, Benito Mussolini. The group does not identify itself as far-right or far-left; they declare themselves euroskeptics, antiglobalists, and ultranationalists. In 2019, a court in Rome ruled that the social media platform Facebook should reinstate CasaPound's page, which had been removed for extremism.
Recall that in August, massive clashes between football fans took place in Athens before a UEFA Champions League qualification match, where the local football club AEK hosted Dynamo Zagreb. These clashes led to the death of a 29-year-old AEK fan, Michalis Katsouris, who suffered a fatal stabbing, and ten more people were injured when Croatian fans armed with wooden sticks and metal bats attacked passersby near the "Opap Arena" stadium. Afterward, the police detained 105 individuals, including 102 Croats, and the match was postponed.