Actors rally outside Culture Ministry
Members of the Greek actors’ union rallied outside the Culture Ministry in Athens on Monday in protest at the government’s handling of the alleged sexual misconduct scandal involving prominent Greek actor and director Dimitris Lignadis.
Protesters accused the conservative administration of dragging its feet in dealing with the allegations and called on Culture Minister Lina Mendoni to resign.
In comments made to state-run Athens-Macedonian news agency (ANA-MPA), Kehagioglou Kostas, general secretary of the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Spectacles and Audio (POTHA), also called for “strong legal and moral protection for people who report incidents of abusive behavior.”
“Society is ready to listen,” he said.
Lignadis, 56, appeared before a court in Athens on Sunday and was given until Wednesday to respond to charges of multiple rapes by an examining magistrate. He will remain jailed until then, court authorities said.
Lignadis resigned on February 6 as the artistic director of Greece’s National Theater amid reports of his alleged behavior.
He had been handpicked for the job by Mendoni in August 2019 after she scrapped an existing open competition for the post.
