21-year-old German philosophy student/activist Josephine Markmann, who goes by the pseudonym Josephine Witt, interrupted the European Central Bank (ECB) press conference by jumping on a table, throwing confetti over ECB Chief Mario Draghi while shouting an “end to ECB dictatorship” that was spelt on her T-shirt as “dicktatorship”.

This unusual form of protest was to draw attention to austerity measures that have crushed countries like Greece.

Though trained in martial arts, she told Proto Thema that violence was not needed at the ECB protest. “I got in like anybody else. There’s an airport control machine but I the only weapon I had was the confetti in my bag,” she said, registering as a journalist for Vice Media.

Asked why she felt the need to protest she said that “Mario Draghi’s decision directly influence European society. But, in actual fact, he is a person who is not voted in through democratic means and his policies are not in favor of the people but of bankers. I wanted Mario Draghi to not have a choice but to listen, to rub the truth in his face,” she says.

“I am not an economist, nor am I studying this. And yet, I can see that much of what the ECB does results in horrible, wrong decisions that cannot help Greece develop or put an end to the crisis. If the ECB was governed by democratic procedures, perhaps things would be different,” she says. “I would like to open a discussion as to how the whole credit system of Europe can be restructured. I got into the ECB to show that people that the ECB’s policies affect are not indifferent and demand change here and now. My slogan, too, was a feminist message as it was ‘End Dick-tatorship’.”

Was it worth it? The young German activist certainly thinks so as “the look on Mario Draghi’s face was priceless. He was scared, surprised and shook. The banker suddenly was turned into a normal person before me. I threw the confetti on him because I was sure that security services would take me away real quick and the message had to have impact.”

Markman wants to send a message to Greece. “I would like to tell them that many other people and myself who live here in Germany find the action against the Greek people to be disgusting and racist,” she says. “It isn’t true that Greeks are lazy and greedy. United we can deal with today’s problems using solidarity and not austerity measures that worsen the situation. If there is a Grexit, the entire European idea would have failed.”

She says that her parents aren’t that proud of her activities. They did send a message to see if she was OK after hearing about their daughter’s activities on the news.

At least this time she kept her top on. As a member of the group Femen she has been involved in topless protests in the past.