Venizelos under fire for attacking protesting PSI victims

The right-wing, anti-bailout Independent Greeks party has attacked socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos following his angry reaction Wednesday to a demonstration by a small group of bond-holders during a European election campaign speech in Athens.

Venizelos, leader of junior coalition partner PASOK, was late Wednesday speaking at a rally of the Olive Tree (Elia) alliance at the Benaki Museum on Pireos Street, ahead of Sunday's European Parliament elections. His address was interrupted by a small group of retail bond-holders who lost savings in a private debt restructuring in 2012. Venizelos was at the time Finance Minister.

Four persons were quickly detained as Venizelos spoke out against the “fascist-like” protest.

“Instead of arresting those who defrauded and stole the money of retail bond-holders, they detain those who are demanding the money that was taken away from them in the haircut,” Independent Greeks spokesman Terence Quick said on Thursday.

“The phrase 'fascist-like' uttered by Evangelos Venizelos [against the protesters] is better suited to [Venizelos] himself and his coalition government,” he said.

About 11,000 thousand people saw a huge chunk of their investments go up in smoke in a debt restructuring program, or PSI, dictated by Greece's bailout deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.