NEWS

Athens university seeks police protection

The senate of the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), one of Greece’s leading educational institutions, has asked for a special police detail to be assigned for its protection following escalating clashes between police and illegal street vendors who sell their wares on the sidewalk outside the Patission Street campus, Kathimerini has learned.

An intensification of the clashes on Wednesday prompted the senate to suspend the operations of the AUEB, noting that the upheaval “has repeatedly put members of our community at risk and has seriously disrupted the smooth functioning of the university.” It called for immediate action to “ensure safety at our universities.”

The aim is for the university to reopen on Monday though it is unclear whether the police crackdown on vendors will resume.

The senate intervened earlier in the week after clashes between police, immigrant vendors and individuals who support the migrants reached a peak.

Police believe that the individuals inside the campus who fend off police officers by attacking them with projectiles when the vendors seek shelter there are extreme leftists and not members of the student body.

The government is reluctant to grant police access to the campus despite the relaxing in 2011 of a ban on law enforcement officers being allowed on university grounds.

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