Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou will break a decades-long tradition: She will not lay a wreath at the Polytechnic University to commemorate the 38th Anniversary of the students’ uprising against the military dictatorship on 17th November 1973. Greek media report, that the reason for Diamantopoulou’s refusal is apparently the minor clashes among students on Wednesday morning outside the Polytechnic. Leftist students are claimed to have prohibited students’ organisations from PASOK and Nea Dimokratia to join the commemoration festivities because ‘they support the Loan-Agreement between Greece and its lenders.
Yesterday evening Anna Diamantopoulou issued a statement explaining her act:
“Instead of wreaths, we all ought to speak this truth”
Diamantopoulou will not lay a wreath at Polytechnic!
“I refuse to participate in this process, which is a profound violation of historical memory and translates the essence and meaning of the anniversary of the University of the spectacle of violence and impressions” notes a statement by the Minister for Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou , clarifying that she will not lay a wreath at the 38th anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising.“Instead of wreaths, we all ought to speak this truth. We have a duty to preserve the true meaning and symbolism of the University and to isolate the minorities politically and morally, who through their actions undermine the concept of democratic expression of all citizens” underlines the Diamantopoulou.
In her statement, she noted that “the University and the rebellion of youth and the people against the junta is a shining example, a symbol, a memory that unites and inspires us” and continues: “Respect for the University means, above all, respect for the truth. And the truth is that, with the conditions that have been caused for years by those minorities outside democratic limits and their actions action –it makes absolutely no sense to place a wreath accompanied by either the police or of party supporters. ”
Note that today, November 16, the only political party that laid a wreath at the Polytechnic was the Green Ecologists party. (source: Proto Thema )
This is hilarious. She thinks these radicals are to blame, but these are the same radicals that stood outside the mainstream and occupied the university in 73. These politicians fail to see the parallels between then and now, except this time international finance is occupying Greece and handing out its dictates from above. Sold-out government stooges want to attach themselves to the memory of students who would spit in their faces if they were alive today.
No, big chance that those students would now be part of the government… Think about that for a moment.
That does not mean I agree with Diamantopoulou decision to not lay a wreath. Now she is, as representative of the state, but more so as a person, capitulating to the whims of those who soil the memory of the death of those students with their monolithic thoughts and narrow minded actions. It is just a shame that she, and most of the political leaders of today do not have the courage to stand up against these people in person.
It is now a clear sign that those who govern us are afraid of walking around in their own country. And if they are, what should we be? It is sad, very sad.