Is this the asylum we want?
The historic building of Athens Polytechnic on Patission Avenue looks like it has been bombarded, as do the buildings of the Athens Law School, the University of Economics and Business, and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, all of which have been vandalized and pillaged. Surely the struggle against the dictatorship was not about ensuring the right to asylum in this manner, about educational institutions giving shelter to people making petrol bombs? Greece’s modern democracy has matured enough and it has paid for the senseless violence instigated by groups of extreme elements many times over. It is time to put an end to this sick practice of so blatantly protecting these pockets of illegal activity. The prime minister must take the initiative, just like opposition party PASOK did on two separate occasions when it was in power in the past. Opposition leaders and university rectors, or at least those who have some sense of responsibility, also have a duty to give their support to such an initiative. If this democracy does not react with maturity and determination, even now at this late hour, then we will deserve whatever we get.
