Yanis Varoufakis issued a statement on 17 November, the day of student uprisings in Greece.

When 7 MeRA25 MPs marched on behalf of doctors, nurses, teachers and students, they were grossly outnumbered by the Greek police force who obstructed their peaceful march and surrounded them during a sit-in.

Statement:

“Europeans are facing two threats: the pandemic, and the threat to our democracy. Under the cover of fighting the pandemic, this government in Greece today has dealt a massive blow against democracy.

Our party, MeRA25 very responsively asked our members not to demonstrate today, a day — 17 November — which is the traditional day of protest by youth, by workers, by victims of oppression and exploitation. We asked them not to come in order to participate in the effort to fight against the pandemic.

7 members of parliament represented them. And the government sent an order — you can see the police behind us — to prevent us, violating the Greek constitution, from marching, from moving, even from going to the parliament. This is the first step in the Orbanisation of Greece.

Europeans beware, the illiberal democracies that started in Poland and Hungary and outside the EU in Turkey are now spreading; Greece is such an illiberal democracy as of today. We need to unite against pandemic and against the threat to our democracies.”

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