Greek anti-terrorist police on Friday arrested three people over a series of firebomb attacks targeting politicians from the governing New Democracy party. The coordinated attacks, carried out on July 1, included a deadly explosion in the northern city of Thessaloniki that killed the mother of a parliamentary candidate, authorities said.The predawn attacks targeted the homes of several New Democracy politicians. The deadliest blast claimed the life of 72-year-old Vagia Nestora after a crude bomb made with camping gas canisters exploded beneath the car of her daughter, parliamentary candidate Afroditi Nestora, parked outside their apartment building.Nestora suffered burn injuries in the blast and briefly left hospital on Thursday to attend her mother’s funeral. Her father and two other residents of the building were also injured. Two separate attacks on the same night targeting other New Democracy politicians caused property damage but no casualties.Announcing the arrests, authorities said a 29-year-old man was detained in Thessaloniki and a 26-year-old woman was arrested on the southern island of Crete on suspicion of involvement in the bombing at Nestora’s home. A third man was arrested on suspicion of sheltering the two suspects in his apartment. Addressing Parliament a day after the funeral, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the arrests fulfilled the government’s commitment to bring those responsible to justice.”One day after the funeral of Vagia Nestora, the state honors her memory by leading, as we had pledged to do, the terrorists to justice,” Mitsotakis told news agency AP. He added, “It is democracy’s answer to violence. Democracy’s only answer to violence.”The attacks have renewed attention on Greece’s long history of politically motivated violence dating back to the 1970s. While the extremist organisations that dominated the 1980s and 1990s have largely been dismantled, authorities say newer groups have continued to carry out small-scale bombings, often using crude explosive devices made with camping gas canisters and targeting politicians, police and other symbols of authority.The latest arrests come amid a series of recent bomb-related incidents in Greece. In May 2025, a 38-year-old woman was killed in Thessaloniki when a bomb she was allegedly carrying exploded in her hands. Authorities said she had intended to plant the device outside a bank.Two months later, a bomb exploded outside the Thessaloniki home of the president of Greece’s association of prison guards. While the intended target was unharmed, two other people sustained minor injuries from shattered glass.In April last year, a bomb exploded outside the offices of Greece’s main railway company in central Athens, causing damage but no injuries. The attack came amid public anger over the 2023 railway disaster that killed 57 people, with a newly emerged extremist group claiming responsibility.In another incident in June 2024, a police officer guarding the residence of a senior judge in Athens was injured in a petrol bomb attack.
