Greek anti-terrorism police on Friday arrested three people in connection with a series of firebomb attacks targeting politicians from the ruling 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 pre-dawn attacks targeted the homes of several politicians from the New Democracy Party. The deadliest explosion claimed the life of 72-year-old Vagia Nestora after a makeshift bomb made from camping gas canisters exploded under the car of her daughter, parliamentary candidate Aphroditi Nestora, which was parked outside the apartment building.Nestora suffered burns in the explosion and left the hospital briefly 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, the authorities said that a 29-year-old man was arrested in Thessaloniki, while a 26-year-old woman was arrested on the southern island of Crete on suspicion of involvement in the bombing that targeted Nestora’s house. A third man was arrested on suspicion of harboring the two suspects in his apartment.
Addressing parliament the day after the funeral, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the arrests fulfill the government’s commitment to bring those responsible to justice.“One day after the funeral of Vagia Nestora, the country honors her memory by leading the terrorists, as we pledged, to justice,” Mitsotakis told the AP. He added: “It is democracy’s response to violence. It is democracy’s only response to violence.”The attacks have renewed interest in Greece’s long history of politically motivated violence dating back to the 1970s. While the extremist organizations that dominated the 1980s and 1990s have been largely dismantled, authorities say newer groups continue to carry out small-scale bombings, often using improvised explosive devices made from camping gas cans and targeting politicians, police and other figures 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 holding in her hands exploded. Authorities said they intended to plant the device outside a bank.Two months later, a bomb exploded outside the home of the head of the Greek Prison Guards Association in Thessaloniki. While the intended target was unharmed, two other people sustained minor injuries due to 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 casualties. 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 home of a senior judge in Athens was injured in a firebomb attack.