A group of anti-authoritarian protesters entered the yard of the Greek Parliament in downtown Athens Wednesday noon. Τhe protesters threw flyers, chanted slogan and raised a banner outside the parliament’s main entrance.
In their flyers they demanded the release of convicted 17. November-member Savvas Xeros for health reasons, the abolition of several counter-terror legislation and the abolition of maximum security prisons – the new Greek government passed a law abolishing the Type C prisons.(which has already been done by legislation bill of the new Greek government.
Banner outside the Parliament’s main entrance: “solidarity with the imprisoned hunger strikers – immediate satisfaction”
It was only due to the fact that the guards had the keys to the entrance for lawmakers and cabinet members that prohibited the protesters to enter the Parliament building.
Footage taken from inside the Parliament
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According to Greek media, the group entered the yard without anyone to have checked their IDs.
Riot Police on the pavement outside the Parliament
Police detained 15 of the 20 protesters.
In the last weeks, anti-authoritarians have staged several protest actions and have so far occupied the Law and the Polytechnic School, several offices of SYRIZA, the Syriza radio premises. They have also staged a protest outside the residence of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
Apart from the Parliament protest today, several ideologically similar groups have reportedly occupied SYRIZA offices in Patras and in Crete, as well as the Municipality building in Nea Smyrni South suburb of Athens.
So far no police action has been taken against them, with many – even Syriza supporters- wondering what’s the purpose for this tolerance.
Government spokesman Gavriil Sakelaridis condemned today’s protest describing it as “provocative and unreasonable.”
Parliament Speaker, Zoi Konstantopoulou, seemed unimpressed and told journalists “Are you upset because some demonstrated?”.
Main opposition Nea Dimokratia criticized the government saying in a statement that the gov’t failures were creating a sense of “widespread insecurity.
More pictures here.
I’m with Zoe. Let people have their peaceful say.