"The citizens understand who is investing in the idea of unity and who is stoking social tensions," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday in parliament, in reply to a question raised by main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras.

The sad images everyone saw tonight in Athens must be the last such ones, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday evening, following incidents during a rally to protest police violence in the southern suburb of Nea Smirni.

Government spokesperson Aristotelia Peloni on Wednesday described the incidents that occurred in the Athens district of Nea Smyrni on Tuesday night as "sad and divisive".