Athens Mayor pledges to remove protesters from Syntagma
Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said on Monday he will ask the police to help the municipality’s effort to remove protesters from Syntagma Square in front of the Parliament.
Hundreds of demonstrators, known as the Indignant, have made Syntagma their temporary home by pitching tents at the heart of the Greek capital since May 25 — the start-date of a series of mass rallies against the Socialist government’s austerity measures.
Kaminis was speaking following a meeting with shop owners and labor group officials focused on restoring the capital’s tainted image. Successive demonstrations, some of them violent, have caused extensive damage and kept tourists and consumers away from the city center.
?Camping in a public space is not a constitutional right,? the mayor of Athens said on Monday, adding that, if necessary, the police will help to empty the square.
Justice Minister Miltiadis Papaioannou last week said that the ?gypsy tents in Syntagma make for an unacceptable sight.?
