‘Progress’ and progress
We hear it again as a slogan: Will we move toward the future or the past? In a country where public policies continuously change, the past may sometimes be more progressive.
The “university asylum” law had fallen into disrepute long before it was officially abolished with a vote approved by two-thirds of Greek lawmakers in 2011. And yet, the current SYRIZA administration reinstalled it in 2017, restoring a situation that was established in academic institutions in 1982, when memories of the deadly suppression of the student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973 were still fresh in people’s minds.
A call by five prominent academics and politicians to abolish it again also serves as an indirect reminder that the upcoming general elections on July 7 are about considerably more than just what the tax rate will be.
