Student elections in Greece, circa 2015, witnessed the burning of one ballot box in Athens and two injured people at the University of Thessaloniki following a raid by a group of masked hooligans.

The same scene, mostly black-clad and masked or helmet-wearing young people attempting to disrupt the elections at Greece’s already problem-laden public universities, was played out at colleges and tertiary technical schools across the country — private universities are “verboten” by the … Constitution.

The usual description for the trouble-makers is “anti-state” activists or self-styled anarchists, although the word “provocateurs” has also been aired.