President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Sunday laid a wreath at the bust of Spyros Moustaklis, a resistance fighter who opposed the 1967-1974 military junta, on the 48th anniversary since the restoration of democracy.
The president attended an event to honour the heroes of the struggle against the seven-year dictatorship at the former EAT-ESA jail, where hundreds of resistance fighters were tortured in Eleftherias Park.
She was received by Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis and the president of the junta resistance fighters’ association, Evangelos Giougkis.
A reception with an expanded guest list, in which there is strong representation of civil society, is to be held in the garden of the presidential mansion on Sunday, to mark the anniversary for the return of democracy after the seven-year junta was toppled in 1974.
The reception is to begin at 20:00, with President Sakellaropoulou receiving political leaders, members of the government and parliament, the leadership of the armed forces, members of the resistance, members of the judiciary, journalists and representatives of civil society and organisations engaged in social action that the president supports.
They include representatives of the arts and letters, of women’s organisations and social welfare structures, people with disabilities, non-governmental organisations, healthcare, scientists, athletes, representatives of business and industry, residents of remote areas, refugee and Roman students, members of the aerial fire-fighting forces, homeless persons, and the national polo team and their coach.
Among the guests is judge Maria Lepenioti, who was president of the court in the trial of Golden Dawn, geneticist Emmanouil Dermitzakis, who heads the Genetics and Genomics Institute in Geneva, Christos Kyratsous, who is head of research in infectious diseases and viral vector technologies at Regeneron, space exploration scientist Dr Stamatios Krimigis, two young refugees who excelled in the university entrance examinations, a Roma university student, the mayor of Gavdos Lilian Stefanaki, Halki pharmacist Panagiotis Patelis, and the family of volunteer fire fighter Vassilis Filoras, who was killed fighting a fire in Ippokratio Politia in 2021.[amna]
The junta period in Greece is a strong reminder, that democracy is not a given, even in the country that basically invented it.
It is a fragile plant that need to be grown and protected all the time. And there may be a price to pay to keep it alive.
Let us never forget this, especially with the current development in a certain other country, and not only there.