Police on alert as mass student protests planned in Athens

Mass protests will take place in central Athens today and tomorrow, organised by student associations and school groups, as Greek police step up preparations for a range of scenarios.

Student demands and schedule

The demonstrations are aimed at protesting rising study-related costs and defending free public education. Activities begin today at 18:00 with a gathering of student associations on Syntagma Square, where organisers plan a protest camp with tents and a concert.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, a 24-hour national strike has been announced, with participation from the union of secondary school teachers and planned rallies in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras.

School pupils and high-school students are also expected to take part following calls from platforms tied to the Communist Youth and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). Their meeting point is scheduled for 12:00 at the Propylaea, from where they will march toward Syntagma under the slogan: "From Greece to France, we fight for public and free education."

In response, police have mobilised available security resources and say preventing possible incidents is a priority. Authorities are focusing on crowd control and on measures to avoid clashes that could endanger demonstrators or officers.

"With every such gathering, we prepare even for the worst-case scenarios, that is, for the possibility that groups of people may appear who will try to break up the assemblies and cause problems for the demonstrators and the police," police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglou said this morning.

Photo: press material from the event