The presence of special police on campuses, to which is added an entrance filtered by magnetic cards and video surveillance, was among the priorities of the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis since his election in July 2019. It must materialize in from June, after being adopted by Parliament last year.
For its supporters, the creation of a university police must make it possible to secure faculties which they consider to be in the hands of far-left groups and to be drug hubs.
But it also represents one of the measures most contested by the opposition and student organizations, and a real subject of tension within universities.
“Theatre of violence”
On several campuses of the country and in particular in Thessaloniki, the protests are multiplying, giving rise to clashes with the police. Thursday, May 26, events took a dramatic turn: a student, injured, had to be taken to hospital.
“The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the first university where the government wants to install the university police, has been transformed for several days into a theater of violence for which the only responsible are the government and the rectoral authorities”accuse Efsyn. “This is the university the government dreams of: at the service of the market and at the mercy of the police, without student organization or political life, in dead silence”retorts the opposition daily, recalling that youth unemployment has reached 30%.
“The government is continuing on the path of violence it embarked on three years ago”worries about his side News247. The opposition site sharply attacks a government accused of wanting to dismantle public education:
“The government has shown by all means, legislative, verbal, symbolic, operational, that it hates public education. In the case of higher education, he hates not only its public character, but also the historical weight it carries.”
Memory of the dictatorship
The police presence on university campuses thus refers for many Greeks to the period of the dictatorship of the colonels (1967-1974), and the repression of student resistance by the military junta remains in the memories.
“The Minister of Education and the police are on the same line”accuses on his side I Avgi. Ils “pursue a logic of challenging rights and reducing freedoms”, considers the newspaper close to the main opposition party, Syriza.
Alongside the police presence on campuses, an overhaul of higher education is planned by the government. The very conservative Eleftheros Typos reveals the contours of a “mammoth 320-item bill”. Reestablishment of the boards of directors, appointment of an executive director, criterion of excellence in scholarships, abolition of student organizations, third cycle at a distance… “Everything will change”congratulates himself Eleftheros Typos.
A brake on philanthropy
“While the issue looks like a big political ‘thorn’, and the government and the opposition are engaged in a battle of declarations and announcements, the police are not only not backing down, but they are also increasing their presence on the spot”note Ta Nea. “Universities are upside down” et “higher education is like a boiling pressure cooker”worries the pro-government daily.
Pour I Kathimerinithe situation in Greek universities prevents their outreach and funding. “What is not known is that vandalism has prevented Greek philanthropy from making donations to universities, which would easily exceed one billion euros over the past twenty years”deplores the great center-right newspaper. “Because what benefactor, faced with the image of public universities – abandonment, wear and tear, graffiti – and recurring vandalism would make a significant donation to the public university?” interrogates I Kathimerini.
The I siten.gr alert him to the danger of“to enter a period of protracted conflict in which education would be the big loser”. The media wants to be more nuanced on the criticism of Greek universities and recalls that they remain the place from which the excellence of the country comes. “It is imperative that the dialogue with the university community returns to find arrangements that solve the problems rather than generate new ones”he concludes.