Greek Riots 2008 - Research

Background Rioting

2006 –             Government attempts to reform Education system

2007 –             Student groups begin demonstrations which end in conflict with the police.

2008 –             Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens appointed.

2008

Murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos

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  Fatally shot by police officer Epaminondas Korkoneas
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  Protesting in the Eksarcheia district of Athens
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  Part of protesting group of Students
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  Led to widespread rioting and engaging of police.
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  Riots spread to Thessaloniki and then protests in the rest of Europe including London, Paris, Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Madrid.
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  Newspaper Kathimerini called the rioting ‘the worst Greece has seen since the restoration of democracy in 1974’.

Archbishop proclaimed "the youths are not enraged for no reason”

Although this was the catalyst of the rioting, there were deeper reasons lying behind the revolt. There was a widespread feeling of frustration from young Greeks about the economic and educational state of the country which is affecting the spiralling unemployment rate.

People in general also feel betrayed by the Government as the inefficiency and corruption it promotes only makes the situation worse. As it is a socialist government people feel that they should be working harder to make things better for the people, rather than for personal profit.

Communism – KKE

The Communist Party of Greece used the death of young Alexandros as a way of gaining political support. It showed the police’s role in the shooting as escalating authoritarianism, with them being used almost as soldiers to lay down their ‘marshal law’. This was a clever move by the communists, playing on the fear of ordinary Greeks who already view the police in a suspicious manner due to their corruption and ‘thuggish’ methods. The important thing to remember is that this was NOT a communist uprising.

PM Kostas Karamanlis of ‘New Democracy’ declared the passing of 7 new laws to help out those businesses who had suffered loss or damage during the riots. The measures also aided those businesses who were unaffected, which was seen to aid the people and offer jobs to level out the rate of unemployment.

The Greek public saw this as at last a small positive move by the government, however they were not told how much these laws would affect the already spiralling debt.