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Three young men, "defenders of the left", as they define themselves, beat Professor Nikos Marantzidis of Macedonia University of Thessaloniki to punish him for his critical stance against the supporters of the left idea in Greece.

The Professor in the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies was in a cafeteria in the centre of Thessaloniki with Michalis Peglis, an adviser to the Greek Prime Minister. At some point, about ten young men approached their table, initially turning to Peglis by saying, "Is this Marantzidis who writes against the left?" The Professor himself immediately ntervened in the dialogue, he introduced himself and told the young men that he would discuss with them every disagreement with his position.

Then, three of the young men began to threaten him and approached him whereas the biggest of them attacked him, punching him in the head. When Marantzidis fell to the ground the other two started kicking him in the head and body, and the rest of the group were looking around to prevent the beating from being spotted by "those who should not" notice it.

The attack ended within seconds and the perpetrators left the scene running. The Professor was taken to hospital with wounds all over his body. A little later, he assured on the phone the people closest to him that he was fine.

The political parties condemned the attack on Professor Marantzidis, although some of them were quite laconic in their statements.

"The practice of using violence is inherent to the political extremes and it has no place in a democratic society. We expect SYRIZA and their interlocutors from ANTARSIA to condemn these developments," reads the statement of New Democracy.

SYRIZA said, "We express our aversion for, and condemn, the brutal attack against professor Marantzidis."

PASOK indicated that they strongly condemn such attacks. "Every attack or a threat to commit such, regardless of its apparent ideological cover, is a step towards a fascist Greek society."

Meanwhile, hours after the attack, Nikos Marantzidis wrote in his personal blog the following text that describes the attack and the profile of the aggressors.

"First of all I would urge the activists from the extremist right and those from the anarchist space to take a final decision on how they look. When the activists approached me, dressed in black (trousers and shirts) and with short haircuts, and began to speak "politely" to me ("What is this stuff you write, man?", etc.) I told myself, "Oh, these are Golden Dawners." Then I was left with the "oh" because I was wrong. These were not supporters of the Third Reich but ideologists of public collectivism that frees people from their needs (for example, from the need to express your opinion freely, which is a very bad bourgeois habit). They looked just like Golden Dawners but of course, I, as a reactionary and ignorant supporter of the theory of the two political extremes did not discern their totally different spiritual heritage that they carefully hide under their almost identical appearance.

The expression of one of the activists made a positive impression on me, "Be good and tell us everything otherwise we will become bad and will make you speak." In these times of unemployment, young people with such inherent and cultivated skills in interrogating must be used in responsible positions. Because I understand that they would not like to serve a hated capitalist country, I think that the world is full of many classless opportunities in countries like North Korea or Cuba.

I advise everyone who ends up in a similar position in the future not to deride their attackers. My question, "Boys, are you investigators?" infuriated the activists and made them fly into a rage."