Stone, bat, Molotov cocktails: the “knowledge” textbooks of anti-authoritarians – Cases of extreme violence at universities

Humiliation of students inside university institutions, shaming teachers, car break-ins, violence and violence

This is the… legacy of the terror and violence that anti-authoritarian groups have left over the years in the country’s higher education institutions.

The Manifesto takes a look back at the most shocking incidents that have provoked public outrage and political reaction parties.

Obviously, more courageous decisions must be taken to break the “abscess” that is maligning Greek university institutions.

The shocking attacks at AUTH and PA.DA.

The attacks recorded on Tuesday morning at AUTH, and the University of West Attica in the afternoon of the same day, are only a small part of a “mosaic” that the members of anarchist collectives make sure to form with their actions at regular intervals.

In Thessaloniki, the “assault battalion” of anarchists that stormed the Polytechnic School with sticks, clubs and flares caused the injury of seven students. They attacked in plain sight, spread panic and terror and yet managed to escape without any of the perpetrators being arrested.

Senior officers of the Police Department are trying to identify the perpetrators through video footage, but until then they remain elusive and ready for new… actions.

The perpetrators of the Burantonis attack are on the loose

One of the most shocking cases that captured public attention was the grave beheading of the rector of the Athens University of Economics and Business, Dimitri Bourantoni.

On 29 October 2020, a group of masked invaded his office, immobilized him and put a sign with a slogan in favour of occupations in university institutions on his neck.

Mr Burantoni’s image had “frozen” public opinion and had caused “numbness” in university “circles”. And yet, despite the mobilization of the police, the perpetrators of this particular attack remain at large even today.

The Athens Monomial Plenary Court ruled that the three people, two men and a woman, who had been accused of involvement in the case are innocent. According to the reasoning of the decision “the witnesses did not recognize in their faces the perpetrators of the attack against the then rector of the University of Economics and Business.”

The ASOEE’s sanctuary

For decades, the area of the Economic University on Patision Street had been turned into a “sanctuary” due to the presence of hundreds of hooded members of the anti-authoritarian movement, who had turned the school’s premises into a… hangout.

Riot, barricades, fires and vandalism were the daily routine of students and bystanders alike. It took years of effort, police intervention and the mobilisation of the dean’s office and students to return the school to the ownership of its rightful owners rather than being the “hangout” of a small group of delinquents who had imposed their presence through intimidation.

Decades of occupation at the Polytechnic

At least two of the Polytechnic buildings in the Exarchia area had been under occupation for a number of years and, rather than essentially functioning as educational spaces, had been turned into a base for grocers.

The five-storey building of the “Machine Shop” had been under occupation for twenty years. The building had been vandalised, the window frames had been ripped out, as had the radiators with the picture being described as shabby to say the least.

The second place to be vacated, after sixteen years, was a canteen in the Gini building. His occupation began in 2008. The anti-authoritarians had named this particular squat… “Kulitsa”.

The third squat in the historic complex was of the Plastic building, as well as the “Linear” squat. All spaces have now been returned to students and professors.

The attack on Dimitris Karoni

On 20 April 2026, unknowns caused arson in the car of professor and expert witness, Dimitris Karoni, inside the grounds of the Zografou campus. The fire that broke out in the vehicle caused extensive damage, while the perpetrators “disappeared” in the crowd of students.

The attack on Iakovos Michaelides and the targeting of Vana Nikolaidou

Only at the beginning of May this year, two more incidents with university students as victims and anarchist perpetrators saw the light of day.

In Thessaloniki, the vice-rector of the Aristotle University, Iakovos Michaelides was targeted by members of Roubicon. The perpetrators, who remain unidentified, “bullied” and insulted him as a result, he was rushed to the AHEPA hospital, where he underwent tests without requiring hospitalization.

At the same time, Vana Nikolaidou, professor emeritus of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Vana Nikolaidou, was also the target of “self-inflicted” punishers. Members of Rubicon proceeded to vandalize the entrance of the apartment building where the professor resides, wrote slogans, while they did not fail to capture their act with photos posted on social media.