A new episode in a surge of activities by anti-authoritarian, anarchist and NGO solidarity groups in Athens took place, after a solidarity group occupied the abandoned Athens hotel ‘City Plaza’ to house refugees and illegal migrants, Friday. Only this has a ‘funny’ twist to it. It all started when a self programmed solidarity group called ‘Solidarity Initiative for Economic and Political Refugees’ uploaded a post Facebook calling for the conversion of the hotel into a housing area for refugees. ‘We continue our actions standing by refugees. Solidarity will prevail’, wrote the group. The post received many likes, among which was that of the owner of the hotel, Aliki Papachela, who at the time was unaware it was her hotel that had been taken over. Once she was informed it was her property being used to house the refugees, she responded by posting on facebook accusing the members of the solidarity group that they were charging refugees 20 Euros to squat in the closed hotel. In another post she said she was being targeted because of her anti-SYRIZA political views. In separate incidents, anarchists clashed with police outside the Polytechnic, Sunday night, in Athens, throwing cocktail molotov bombs and rocks, while other antiauthoritarian extreme leftist groups smashed a metro station in Petralona and raided 3 supermarkets in the area of Vyronas.   

The Facbook post by the ‘solidarity group’ calling people to occupy the hotel

The hotel owner’s posts after finding out it was her property being occupied