Anastasia Balezdrova
At 2 o’clock at night the spokesman of the groups supporting the illegal immigrants said that the owner of the building on Patision Avenue withdrew from the agreement that had been reached earlier about the immigrants to finally leave the building of the Law School.
According to Nikos Giannopoulos, the owner excused with the night and wanted immigrants to relocate during the day. The spokesman said that the strikers would stay at the School until the morning and that the matter would be revised, without any guarantees for successful outcome.
It took seven hours the illegal immigrants and their supporters to decide to leave the university premises and relocate to the building at the corner of Patision Avenue and Ipirou Street.
The smooth and peaceful leaving of the immigrants was negotiated until shortly before midnight. Talks took place on two fronts: at the Ministry for Citizens Protection between the Minister Christos Papoutsis and representatives of immigrants and at the building of the School where the rector and members of the rector’s office discussed the matter.
The negotiations were turbulent and had variable outcomes. First, the immigrants did not agree with the proposed conditions, which the owner of the building refused to accept then despite the agreement between the prosecutors and the strikers. Prosecutors, immigrants and their supporters negotiated at the entrance of the School for hours.
According to the final agreement, the immigrants would spend the night in the basement of the building and their supporters would stay in the courtyard allowed to visit them under discreet police presence. Immigrants would move to the upper floors of the building tomorrow after the removal of various objects stored there.
It all started after the immigrants had decided to disagree with their relocation to the building provided by the Rector of the University of Athens in cooperation with NGOs. They said they would not move elsewhere because they believed they did not interfere with anyone when no lectures were held in the building and because according to them, the building proposed did not meet their requirements.
There was clear disappointment in the words of the Athens University Rector Theodossis Pelegrinis. "We offered them a very good solution which they did not accept." According to some sources, the rector had said to the immigrants and their supporters that "you are solely responsible for what will follow."
Hundreds of members of all special police forces closed off the streets around the building of the Law School. The central avenues Panepistimiou and Akadimias were also closed off and the police did not allow pedestrians to walk along the small streets around the School in the Kolonaki district. Dozens of people had gathered before each police blockade whereas a group of demonstrators had gathered before the main building of the university to protest against the police presence.
The measures were so stringent that neither reporters, nor photojournalists who arrived in the area shortly afterwards were allowed to approach the building of the School. Voices of protesting media representatives could be heard, arguing with the police officers how right or wrong it was not to be allowed to approach the scene.
The first negotiations were held between prosecutors and representatives of human rights organizations in front of the Law School. The former president of the left coalition Sinaspizmos Alekos Alavanos and parliamentary members from the coalition partner SYRIZA which the majority of the public believed to have prompted the actions of the immigrants took part in them.
Supporters of the immigrants on strike chanted slogans in their support during the negotiations.
Shortly after 6:30 pm a member of the supporting group came out of the building and urged all who were present in front of it to come inside and make a human "wall" before the immigrants in case of police intervention.
After the immigrants had decided to reject the proposal of the Rector and the 4 NGOs the prosecutor Eleni Raikou was requested to allow police intervention in the School. According to some information, impeding the functions of the School and violation of public order were indicated in the text sent by the rector’s office as reasons for the request.
At the same time, a special meeting was held at the Parliament under the guidance of Interior Minister Yannis Ragousis. The Ministers for Citizens Protection and the Minister of Education also took part in it. The government was determined to use all possibilities to peacefully resolve the conflict.
The crisis with the immigrants who have settled in the Law School by themselves evoked various feelings in the Greek society. The public in Greece is not for the first time concerned about the university inviolability. Police is not entitled to enter the territory of universities. By law, this status could be cancelled only by rector’s council decision which then submits a request to the prosecution. It, in turn, issues an order to allow the police to intervene but only in cases of serious crimes.
This law has never been applied in practice. Therefore, anarchists causing clashes and violence during strikes and protest marches rush to hide in universities where police are persona non grata.
However, they particularly prefer the Athens Polytechnic. The status of asylum has not been observed there for the first and only time so far. On November 14, 1973 students, workers and pupils occupied the building of the school and locked there. Their main demand was the fall of the junta’s dictatorship imposed on the country since 1967. The military regime decided to quell the protest after three days
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