While the world celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8 March, women in Greece took to social media to raise awareness on the constantly increasing number of femicides. Many left their shoes on the street as a sign of protest and mourning for the most recent victim, a mother of three from Thessaloniki who was murdered by her ex-partner on 2 March.
A rally was also organised in Athens, where thousands of women marched to the parliament holding banners and chanting slogans.
Among the participants were several organizations including the Greek Women’s Federation, students and migrants associations, the union umbrella of civil servants union ADEDY, and independent labor unions of the private sector.
Present were also representatives of the organisation ‘Ukrainian Women in Greece’ who marched holding yellow carnations and were met with a long applause.
Δεν σας έχει ξεχάσει κανείς. Και μακάρι να μην υπάρξει καμία άλλη. #InternationalWomensDay #γυναικοκτονια #MeToo #metooGR pic.twitter.com/kBJCrn2Zcq
— Ms. Victorious ☕️👩🏻💻📖 *ON HIATUS* (@vickaki_mos) March 8, 2022
The victim, 41-year-old Vicki (surname withheld) was working at the cafe-ouzeri she owned in Kato Toumba, Thessaloniki, when her ex-partner Leontis Vorrias, 42, barged into the venue and shot her in front of patrons.
The woman’s 20-year-old daughter, who was also working at the establishment tried to intervene and was also wounded but survived. The girl was hospitalised but escaped danger. According to witnesses Vorrias, then turned the gun on himself after shooting Vicki and ended his life.
Vicki was fatally wounded in the right abdominal area and passed away at the Papageorgiou hospital in Thessaloniki despite efforts by doctors to revive her.
The 41-year-old mother of three had recently ended her relationship with MMA champion Vorrias, and according to authorities, had recently filed a restraining order against him. He was reportedly arrested in the past after threatening to kill the victim when she had previously attempted to cut ties.
Vorrias, who hails from the island of Chios, had made an eerie post on Facebook hours before his crime saying “Closer and closer to the final fight. The only thing I never feared is death. I don’t know about you”.
Local media outlet thesstoday, revealed that the 42-year-old Voarrias had strong ties with Greece’s criminal organisation Golden Dawn, often posting racist and pro Neonazi content on his social media and was a fan of former Greek dictator, George Papadopoulos.
Greek Twitter users have shared photos of Vorrias amongst a group that raided the Parliament months ago. He was also a fanatic anti-vaxxer often calling vaccinated people “disabled” or “sub-human”. It was alleged that the victim and Vorrias would often disagree on current affairs, ending up with Vorrias getting abusive.
Following Vicki’s death, Vorrias’ ex-partner revealed that she had been a victim of ongoing abuse for almost three years. Vorrias, would beat her regularly and had even kidnapped her. Well-known writer Konstantinos Komninos (a friend of Vorrias’ ex partner) told Ok! that the woman had reported the incidents to the police, had filed restraining orders and lawsuits several times but Vorrias was never arrested or stopped.
This is the second femicide in Greece since the beginning of 2022. Last year saw at least one woman murdered per month according to Greek Police, while many acts of violence against women remain unreported.
