«Vacate the Law School today!»

Yesterday the provost of the University of Athens, Theodosis Pelegrinis, asked the occupying immigrants for the immediate and peaceful vacation of the School. At the same time, the Areios Pagos district attorney Ioannis Tentes instructed the head of the Prosecution Appeals of Athens, Ioannis Sakelakos, to ask Pelegrinis to provide information and clarifications on the occupation of the Law School by immigrants.  

In a press conference, Pelegrinis asked the immigrants to vacate the premises today, while at the same time requesting the mobilization of the State and the intervention of the PM.

He also spoke about a guided occupation and abuse of the asylum, and called for a joint meeting on the subject of immigration policy, with the Interior minister Giannis Ragousis, Labor vice minister Anna Dalara, Attica prefect Giannis Sgouros and Athens mayor Giorgos Kaminis.

He stressed that the problem is immigration and not the Law School, and that the State must secure today the safe transport of the immigrants to a different area and the officials must listen to their problems.

President of Law School Thodoros Fortsakis gave a short deadline to the immigrants while talking on TV on Tuesday afternoon. Fortsakis said that the provost council will await the peaceful departure of the immigrants before convening on the asylum.

Earlier the PM gave the order to the minister of Citizen Protection to take all appropriate measures and identify responsibilities for this situation.

This information was conveyed to the press by Papoutsis at the sidelines of a reception given at the Presidential Palace in honor of the diplomatic corps.

According to the minister, the only disturbance for Greek Police on Tuesday came from the police director in Chania in order to prevent the boarding of the immigrants.

Earlier he had said, “I feel obliged to remind everyone that the University Asylum is not offered as an excuse of institutional dysfunction and administrative incompetence, nor as a field on which to pursue political purposes and alien, non-university goals. The university authorities have exclusive responsibility and authority to deal with the situation created at the Law School of Athens”.

Diamantopoulou: they did not get there by chance

“It is outrageous that political forces operate in a provocative way to human suffering, to serve partisan ends, abrogating academic freedoms. They did not get there by chance. They were led and guided” said the Education minister.

“The transformation of the school into an immigrant camp is beyond any tolerance” she added, and asked of the administration to “take the initiative to defend the academic function”.

Pelegrinis: the state did not act to prevent this dead end

The provost of the University of Athens, Thodosis Pelegrini, stresses the Police knew what was about to happen, for – as he supports – there was prior briefing, while Greek Police says they bear no responsibilities.

Commenting on the statements of the minister of Education, he said “The laws must of course be applied to a well-governed country but ensuring that the public interest is erved comes first, for which the university community is fighting. It is easy to ascribe blame all over the place. However, it is the state and the ministry that did not care to act as they should, to avoid this dead-end. However, I can assure you that we are trying to find a solution that will leave the university intact”.

Samaras: the asylum must be eliminated

ND president Antonis Samaras said that he never received an answer from the government to his statement on the elimination of the asylum a few months ago . “Today all facts point to the only solution being the elimination of the asylum, an outdated institution that must be abolished”.

Karatzaferis: the immigrants out of Law school

LAOS president Giorgos Karatzaferis called upon the government to throw the illegal immigrants out of the school. In his announcements on state radio he said that “we have an intrusion in the building of the Law School” and estimated that the immigrants “gave a display of strength”. He also said that the government is obliged to find a way to “throw them out today because we can’t show to Europe that Greece is an unguarded vineyard”.

KKE: whoever led the immigrants into the school exposed them
 
The Communist Party said that “whoever led the immigrants in the school exposed them to more slander and threats of reactionary parties and mechanisms, state repression and blackmail by trafficking gangs”.
Noting that the specific action “offers services” towards the abolition of the university asylum, the Party denounced the “appalling conditions and the tragic dead end” of the lives of immigrants-refugees, and invites the student world “to seek an immediate solution and protect the university asylum”. KKE is also asking the workers not to get distracted “from the hate cries of forces that cover the reasons for immigration, the responsibilities and the objectives of the EU”.

SYN: they shouldn’t be looking for agitators

The Party is talking of an orchestrated campaign to target political forces in solidarity with the just demands of immigrants and is calling the minister of Education and those who “rushed to the usual practice of a witch hunt”, not to go looking for agitators. According to SYN, the decision to place the immigrants inside the school came from the student board and was voted on by the student factions of PASOK and ND.

Democratic Alliance: Lawlessness is treated as a spectacle

“The weakness and timidity of immigration policy can not function as an alibi for those who, by showing free affection and exploiting human suffering, continue to keep the Law School occupied” says Giannis Oikonomou, and accuses the government for treating lawlessness and revolutionary workout as a spectacle. As if the government is not just another TV station”.