On Thursday October 24, during a student demonstration in Athens outside the Greek Parliament, a first-year University student, T. Sakkaris, was hit on the head by a flash-bang grenade thrown by the police against the demonstrators. The student, who is a member of MeRA25, was severely wounded and subsequently hospitalised, having lost a lot of blood. Naturally the police gave their own version of events by claiming that no flash-bang grenade was ever used, only tear gas.

MeRA25 MP Sophia Sakorafa, who rushed to the spot, rebutted their claim and Mihalis Kritharides, MeRA25’s spokesperson, condemned police brutality and the law and order dogma that the right-wing government is implementing to counter popular resistance.

The issue at stake, that triggered a similar demonstration in Thessaloniki, is the students’ opposition to the recent law that abolishes university asylum and other neoliberal reforms. Central to them is the indirect abolition of the emblematic article 16 of the Greek Constitution, which establishes tertiary education as a public good.

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