Police on Friday were gearing up for another protest expected to take place against migrants living in Cyprus, this time on Limassol’s beachfront.
The development follows days of violence in Chlorakas, Paphos, where thugs, many incited by far-right political party Elam, attacked foreign nationals living in the area, breaking into their homes, and smashing up their businesses.
Limassol’s anti-immigrant protest will take place at 8pm at the Molos area, raising fears due to it being an area with multicultural shops and foreign nationals.
As a result of the far-right sentiment, leftist groups are also organising a counter-protest on Saturday, to support migrants living in Cyprus and to slam the wave of extremism that has come to public light in the past week. The demo is called ‘March against fascist pogroms’.
Police spokesman Christos Andreou told CNA the force already had an action plan ready, and the entirety of the event would be policed, so as to ensure the situation does not get out of hand.
He did not divulge details or if the water canon will be there, saying this information would not be helpful to share.
The developments come amid calls from three MPs to have Justice Minister Anna Procopiou resign, after she held a meeting on Sunday in Chlorakas with the police chief and an unofficial representative of the Syrian community, who later transpired to have pending arrest warrants.
The Syrian national had earlier in the day made inflammatory statements to the press after the first day of violence which he later apologised for attributing it to stress.
Disy MP Kyriacos Hadjiyiannis, Edek MP Kostis Efstathiou and independent MP Andreas Themistocleous called for Procopiou’s resignation, saying the fact that she met with a person that had an arrest warrant pending was an embarrassment.
She told Philenews that she was there to hear the problems of the people, and the Syrian national was not brought in specifically as a negotiator of sorts.
The police spokesman said patrols in Chlorakas are ongoing to keep the peace. In total 145 drivers were stopped and 65 searched. There were 35 traffic reports of which five were found to be driving under the influence of drugs.
Four people were arrested for various criminal and traffic offences and eight vehicles were towed overnight.
Earlier this week, 21 people were arrested and 16 remanded over the riots.
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