The military were ready for action during the big night of vandalizing in Athens

On the night of 12 of February the Greek army was ready to take control of the situation in the center of Athens, when lawmakers voted in parliament for the new memorandum of economic aid, while outside hooded youths were breaking and burning. According to information published in the electronic portal iefimerida.gr the government was ready to turn to the military because of fears that vandalizing can spread. After the first fires occurred fears occurred that the riots may have been only the beginning of a plan to destabilize the country and to completely destroy the capital.

Unnamed sources, cited by the website, said that Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos informed senior government officials and ministers that if the burning of buildings continued and the country is in danger of sinking into chaos, the only solution is the intervention of the army. And this was because it became clear that the police could not effectively thwart an organized attempt to destabilize the country. Dimitris Avramopoulos described the plan "Deucalion", which envisaged the intervention of mechanized troops with small arms to limit the vandalizing.
The same sources claim that many of the interlocutors of the Defense Minister shared his concerns. The article states that they have realized that the intervention of troops would cause a series of political problems within the country and abroad and would increase speculation that Greece is on the verge of a civil war. The author of the text adds that it would enable the Left to resort to extremes to which it anyway was calling through its rhetoric that night.
However, the ministers decided that the "symbolic harm" that could be caused would be much less than the price of a burned Athens within an organized plan for destruction. They relaxed in the early hours of Monday when they were assured that the riot was under control and the intervention of the military, was not needed.
In an official announcement by the Defense Ministry it was stressed that the plan "Deucalion" had no connection with the events of 12 February. It would have been put in action only in cases of natural disasters with the intervention of specially trained commandos.
Meanwhile, the new old minister of citizen’s protection Michalis Chrisohoidis made indirect attacks on his predecessor Christos Papoutsis about what happened in his office. He said that when he left the ministry 17 months ago he left police squads DIAS employing 2 000 people with at least 1 000 motorcycles.
On Wednesday, the Director of the specific police squads informed him that currently there are 1 300 police officers and the remaining 700 were assigned to office services. Michalis Chrisochoidis turned to the director of the DIAS squad and ask rhetorically in which specific offices were those policemen. The new minister also wondered where are the 2 500 new officers and stressed that work cannot be done if also the new squad of 1 200 "sinks" in other departments.
Michalis Chrisohoidis said that his priority would be the permanent presence of police on the streets, and except the "missing" 700, this mission will be joined by another 1 000 police officers. The main reason for crime is the crisis, the minister said and urged relevant departments to focus on finding the criminal groups. In the fight against organized crime, he intends to restructure the police.
Christos Papoutsis, who resigned in order to run for leadership of PASOK, did not did not leave the matter aside and issued a news release in which he described in detail the situation in the DIAS squads. According to him on 7 March 2012 there were 70 more squad members compared to 7 May 2010 during the preceding term of Mihalis Chrisohodis in the Ministry.