A group of intoxicated African migrants has been accused of harassing and assaulting the mayor of Eastern Samos on the Greek island island after being asked to leave a city square.
The African migrants attacked Mayor Georgios Stantzos after the group had been drinking heavily in a local city square in the city of Samos. The Africans were first confronted by the local police who asked them to leave.
Initially, the migrants left, but they soon returned to the square and began harassing locals while continuing to drink alcohol, Proto Thema reports.
According to the newspaper, Mayor Stantzos was also in the area at the time and confronted the migrants, telling them to go elsewhere. The migrants reacted with aggression, calling the mayor a “fascist” and assaulting him, ultimately throwing him to the ground.
The incident is not the first time Stantzos has confronted illegal migrants in the city. In December, he joined a group of locals in trying to remove migrants who were occupying a square in the town who he claimed had vandalised locals’ cars.
“Myself and the vast majority of the people of Samos have no problem with the migrants… Of course, there are a few among them who are intent on creating trouble. My issue is with them alone,” he said at the time.
In March, Stantzos was involved in another incident after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had opened the gates to Greece for migrants in Turkey.
Video footage was captured of Stantzos demanding migrants leave Samos. “We want them off our island! That’s it!” he said before a group of locals threw cameras belonging to the leftist Vice News organisation into the sea nearby.
Lesbos, another Greek island with vastly overpopulated migrant camps, also saw violence this week. An Afghan went on a rampage, stabbing several African migrants in the Moria camp. A 19-year-old from the Ivory Coast died as a result of the attack.