Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said on Monday that he intends to run for re-election in June 2014, when the next local authority elections are due, and emphasized that one of his key concerns is fighting the rise of racist violence by members of far-right organizations.

In comments to municipal radio Athina 984 on Monday -- just a week after Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris said he would seek re-election -- Kaminis confirmed that he too would run for the top spot in Athens, noting that he and his team needed a new mandate to tackle the capital’s myriad problems.

“We created a program but were then plunged into reality without knowing how terrible it would be,” he said, adding that “some time was lost as we had to realize what was going on.”

His priority, he said, would be to work with the central government to create an “alliance of democratic forces opposite Chrysi Avgi,” referring to the far-right Golden Dawn, which has been linked to a spike in assaults on immigrants.