Left-wing political movement Antifa on Thursday claimed responsibility for a break-in at Disy’s offices in Limassol, which saw individuals spray slogans on the offices’ internal walls and empty drawers onto the offices’ floor in protest at a bill which, if passed into law, will ban the act of covering one’s face at a protest.

A video published on open-source media website Indymedia shows footage of walls and framed photographs of former presidents Nicos Anastasiades and Glafcos Clerides being spray painted, with text reading “against the bill on protests and the covering of faces” appearing on screen at the video’s end.

Accompanying the video is a text, which reads, “at dawn on July 10, we took immediate and necessary action at the offices of dirty Disy”.

“We broke down their pathetic door, entered their haunted offices, and redecorated them … sending a clear message. This action serves as a warning to the public and to every party which tries to negate our rights through their dictatorial and junta bills. It’s just a small taste of what will follow if these fools dare to pass this fascist and illegal bill of theirs,” the text read.

It went on to decry “the economic neo-colonial conquest of our island by the genocidal Zionists and the disgusting complicity of the Cypriot state in the genocide of our neighbours”, as well as “operations by cop-like scum who gather refugees to beat them and deport them” and “frequent incidents of homophobic, transphobic, and racist hate”.

Earlier in the day, Limassol police spokesman Lefteris Kyriakou had said the entrance to the building in which the offices are housed had been “forced open” with a “sharp object”, and that nothing appears to have been stolen.

Disy, meanwhile, described the incident as “an assault driven by fanaticism”, and said it views the incident as “part of a wider effort to silence moderate political voices”.

The party’s deputy leader Efthimios Diplaros said Disy “will not be threatened” and added that the party “will stand firm against hatred, violence, and anarchy”.

“Disy is not threatened. We were and will remain against hatred, fanaticism, hooded individuals, anarchy, and those who act cowardly at night instead of speaking in the light of day. Let them come and face us in the political arena,” he said.

The bill, which is due to be debated at Thursday’s plenary parliament session, states that any person who participates in a protest and “hides their face in any way to the point where it cannot be recognised, without justification”, will be considered to have been hiding their face “for the purpose of committing an offence.”

This crime will entail a two-year jail sentence or a maximum fine of €4,000, or both.