Students go on the rampage in Athens
The academic community and a string of politicians condemned yesterday the violent behavior of some students as, just a day after the rector of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University was hospitalized, a group wreaked havoc at Athens Law School. Following a small student protest in the center of Athens, some 30 youths who had their faces covered and were carrying rocks, batons and Molotov cocktails stormed into the Law School and began smashing equipment belonging to the New Democracy-affiliated student union DAP-NDFK. The conservative student body called on all parties to speak out against the behavior of «a small group of self-appointed saviors.» When questioned about the stance of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), which has been accused of giving extremist students moral backing, alternate government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said all parties should «unequivocally» condemn their behavior. The rector of Aristotle University, Anastassios Manthos, was in stable condition in the hospital yesterday after hitting his head during scuffles with students on Wednesday. Employees at the university staged a four-hour work stoppage in protest as the school’s departments issued statements condemning the incident. Aristotle’s vice rector, Athanassia Tsatsakou, said the government was partly to blame for the upheaval for being inflammatory in its statements against state universities but she also accused leftist parties of applying double standards.
