On Wednesday noon, August 24th, Container squat in the University campus in Zografou, Ilissia district, has been invaded and evicted. The occupied container was smashed, and all items were removed and confiscated. Students from the occupied rectorate building at Propylaea, in downtown Athens, called for a discussion–briefing at 9 pm regarding these developments.
Hours earlier, about 2,000 students demonstrated in central Athens while demonstrations also took place against the education reform bill in Thessaloniki, Heraklion (Crete) and Patras. Nevertheless, the Greek parliament voted in the education reform bill submitted by the minister of Education Anna Diamantopoulou which included some of the most sweeping changes the country’s educational system has seen in living memory.
In a very last minute tweak of the education bill, the minister announced the complete abolishing of the historical university asylum (which prevented police from entering academic grounds in the name of the freedom of expression) and the election of university vice-chancellors primarily from their academic community.
Needless to say, the university asylum has been violated in practice numerous times during the ‘Metapolitefsi’ and especially over the past years.