After the police raid at the Athens Economic University one has seen dangerously sharp rhetoric on television talk shows, the social media, and the streets.
University students are demonstrating against police coercion while non-students used α chainsaw to open the gates of a university whose assembly had decided to shut down days before the 17 November Athens Polytechnic uprising march, which is often marked by violence afterward.
SYRIZA cadres are describing the decision to resort to police action as a coup and a junta, while New Democracy cadres defended the “necessity of battering” and maintained that the evidence discovered in the basement of the Economic University are weapons to which the Syrian Army has access.
Obviously all sides must retain their composure, especially ahead of the 17 November march, which non-students will as every year attempt to exploit and besmirch.
No one can doubt that Greece has a democratic and broadly supported government.
Moreover, no one can ignore the fact that in a democracy the state has a monopoly of violence and there is no need for a government cadre to remind us of that.
Greek society urgently needs normalcy, regardless of whether the main opposition declares that this is a threat to democracy.
Among other things, normalcy entails that universities be returned to students and professors, where they belong.
The concepts of excellence, evaluation, and meritocracy must be restored.
The memory of those killed during the Athens Polytechnic uprising must be honoured with unity, with broad popular support, and peacefully.
