Greece-Papandreou incident: Who can afford nowadays to throw away his shoes? (Videos) tagged: , , , , , ,

Greece-Papandreou incident: Who can afford nowadays to throw away his shoes? (Videos)

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Society

A man threw a shoe at Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou. The brown loafer (worn without socks) missed the target. The man was arrested. The government said “the incident was without significance”. In fact, I could end the story here. Or maybe add my crucial question: Who can afford nowadays to throw away a shoe, even for the shake of a prime minister?

The man is a doctor, radiologist, 56 years old. He is waiting for the prime minister to come out of the Thessaloniki International Fair , he  had inaugurated and inspected some minutes ago.

Shortly after 11:30 am – could have been 11:42 – , the prime minister exits the fair area. The man is wearing a grey beard, jeans, shirt and two brown loafers, but no socks. It’s fairly hot in Thessaloniki this Saturday morning, although a heavy storm is on the way. 

The man bends himself, takes off  the left shoe from his left feet, holds it for a couple of minutes in his right hand  and he throws it the moment he sees Papandreou’s head arising from the crowd. Papandreou’s personal guards, who didn’t see the man holding the shoe or never heard of similar incidents, throw themselves instantly over the man.

He shouts: “Traitors” and “Down with the Junta” ( This reminds me of the slogan “Down with Thieu”  that was written and never (?) erased outside a student’s dormitory in Germany – but that’s another story) . The security men carry the shoe-thrower into a police car and take him to the police station.

For some weird reason the man wears no shoes at all. Did he throw both at the Prime Minister?  Did he lose his left loafer while on battle with the secret police? He thought it’s not schick to walk only with one shoe and took it off? We might never know.

At the police station,  they ask him: “Why did you do it?” He answers: ”He (Papandreou, I assume) didn’t keep his promises“, “He sold out Macedonia“.

What do we learn out of this statement? The action was not to protest the economical  ”sold out of the country” but the political “sold out of Macedonia”.

OK, now there is an UPDATE on the incident! I saw the man speaking at Greek television channels and he said, he

 Had he shouted “Down with IMF“, he would have been a celebrated hero… But “Macedonia”? With 5,5% inflation and 11,6% unemployment? Some find little sympathy for the man.

In its good searched story www.news247.gr portal writes that the man is a member of the “Patriotic Front“, a  group with nationalist orientation. It writes also that the action was announced on the Front’s website, urging people to throw shoes at the Prime Minister.

Why was it only him throwing a shoe? Is he the only visitor of the website? Is he the only one, who can afford it economically to trash a pair of shoes? 

!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The man, Stergios Prepevezis, was arrested together with his 15 years old daughter, but both were later set free.

The man speaking at Greek television channels said, he protested the sold out of the country to IMF and asked people to bring their old shoes to protest the Prime Minister….

VIDEOS

Video 1: Man throwing the shoe, making practice the night before!

     Actually this a BBC exclusive video but I can’t open their website at the moment

 

Video 2: Watch out for the brown loafer!