Greece: Report of todays actions in solidarity with D. Koufontinas – March 02

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Received 02/03/2021

Today 02.03.2021, marks the 55th day of Dimitris Koufontinas’s hunger strike and  the 8th of thirst strike (15:00) Day started with reports about heavy police presence at occupied FEPA* to try and stop the ‘solidarity to Koufontinas assembly’ which was held at the time, but turned out untrue.

Police have once again shut down the Syntagma metro station to prevent people from reaching the square, the designated assembly point for the demo. 

(17:00) Pretty strong police presence around Syntagma, with DRASI**, DIAS*** and riot police surrounding Syntagma and harassing people trying to get there with covid document checks, giving fines and frisking. 

(18:00) They tried to clear the square but once a big enough crowd had gathered, our space was successfully reclaimed and DRASI were forced to move away and watch from a distance. People proceeded to occupy the street in front of parliament as numbers were growing and we should note that today’s participation is a lot higher than yesterday’s. The significance of such a strong turn-out on a second consecutive day in support of Koufontinas’s struggle is big! We will not be silenced! 

(18:50) Demo has begun moving towards Propylea and down Panepistimiou and is being closely followed in the sides by riot police and by a water canon, riot police and DELTA motorbikes just behind. Demos in Volos, Thessaloniki, Lamia (and…) also going strong. In Volos, paint was thrown in the office entrance of a ND MP just a coupel of days after a person was arrested for doing exactly that. Report of two black OPKE SUVs without plates driving around Exarcheia. 

(19:30) People have reached Omonoia square. The solidarity movement mobilised for DK grows bigger every day. Thousands of people took to the streets again today to raise their voices against the pre-determined and state-orchestrated murder of hunger striking prisoner Koufontinas.

text by @ximikesagkalies
in cooperation  with @antirinfo

FEPA= Student residence of the Kapodistrian University of Athens
**DRASI= cops emergency response team with motorbikes
***DIAS= cops team with motorbikes

photo by @laf_portal