Students block Athens university entrances in opposition to new police corps
About 300 students opposed to the establishment and deployment of university police blocked the entrance to the Zografou campus of the University of Athens on Friday morning.
Members of student political groups began the blockades in the early hours, at the Katechaki Avenue, Olaf Palme and Zografou cemetery entrances.
In a statement, they said that they will not allow the new police corps to enter the campus.
The government deems the new police corps necessary to tackle decades of lawlessness at universities. However, opponents of the move, mainly from left-wing parties, argue it threatens academic freedom established after the end of military rule in the 1970s.
In addition to the University of Athens and National Technical University of Athens campus in Zografou, the campus police will be in charge of keeping the peace at Athens University of Economics and Business and Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University.
