Greece student and teacher protests over public education and cost of living, Digi Mart USA News (Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece): Under a banner reading “From Greece to France, we are fighting for free public education,” about 4,000 people marched in Athens and Thessaloniki, the country’s second-largest city and a major university hub, according to police and AFP journalists.
Filanthi Gioni, an engineering student and elected student representative, told AFP that “the problems are the same” in Greece and France. “The money is being spent on NATO armaments and wars,” she said.
Protesters gathered in front of the University of Athens before moving calmly to Syntagma Square, opposite Parliament. “We are demanding increased university funding, modernized infrastructure and financial support for students who cannot cope with the rising cost of living, with exorbitant rents,” said Nikos Alexiadis, 22, a mathematics student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
The secondary school teachers’ federation (OLME) called a four-hour work stoppage to allow teachers to take part in the demonstrations. “We stand alongside our students and university students who demand the right to free public education and to studies and a life that meets their aspirations,” the federation’s statement said.
Students and teachers are protesting a lack of infrastructure, staff shortages and deteriorating school buildings. The movement also denounces the high cost of living in a country where wages remain low.
The mobilization coincides with a day of strikes in France, where unions called on employees and civil servants to strike over pay, alongside young people and retirees. Over recent weeks, high school student protests in France have spread to other European countries.
In Greece, a first mobilization on October 21 drew more than 10,000 people in Athens and Thessaloniki, among other locations. According to Eurostat, Greece spent 3.3% of its GDP on education in 2023, one of the lowest shares in the EU and well below the European average of 4.7%.
Social unrest in France, along with damage and looting on October 17, drew strong interest in Greece, a country that went through a decade of financial crisis marked by violent protests. The Greek daily Kathimerini wrote in an October 21 editorial: “We went through what France is experiencing today about sixteen years ago.” The paper added that when citizens feel they cannot voice discontent at the ballot box, they may take to the streets, particularly when scandalized by “a sense of abandonment by the state.”
Amid a cost-of-living crisis across Europe, trade unions and housing rights associations in seven European countries, including Greece, have called for “coordinated demonstrations” against the high cost of living at the end of November, a rare joint mobilization.
