Angeliki Trikili
Coordinator of the Kalymnos Local Organization
The prohibition of gatherings at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier—at this sacred site of democracy and remembrance—is an unacceptable and authoritarian deviation that reveals the complete degeneration of the current government.
It is inconceivable, in the year 2025, to witness practices that evoke the darkest periods of modern Greek history. The return to methods of police domination and the suppression of the right to protest and free expression revives the black pages of the junta era in our country, when democracy was silenced, and the people’s voice drowned in fear and violence.
By adopting unprecedented authoritarian methods and unconstitutional provisions, the government is attempting to bury the non-negotiable constitutional right to assembly. The appeal to public order and the supposed protection of the monument is nothing but a false pretext.
The government trembles before the growing popular rage, which swells day by day as a result of its policies—policies that crush workers, pensioners, and the youth. The attempt to silence the voice of the people and block access to the Monument, a symbol of resistance and struggle, is nothing but a cowardly and panicked reaction in the face of a torrent of indignation.
The effort to muzzle the popular will and exclude citizens from a place where, for decades, democratic consciousness has been expressed, constitutes a dangerous deviation and strikes at the heart of our fundamental rights. The cradle of democracy cannot be turned into a forbidden zone.
Syntagma Square belongs to the citizens who fight for justice, transparency, and social equality. Every stone, every square meter of the square is steeped in the people’s struggles for freedom and dignity. We will not hand over this legacy. Syntagma, as the heart of Athens and a symbol of Greek democracy, is not merely a public space—it is the historic center of political expression and social dialogue.
The struggle for democracy and freedom of speech is non-negotiable, and it will find us all united against any anti-democratic deviation. We will fight, by all legal and democratic means, to abolish this amendment in practice and restore the citizens’ free access to the square. We will prove that the right to protest, the voice of the people, is non-negotiable.
With our resistance to this prohibition, we breathe new life into the timeless struggles for justice and democracy.
Syntagma Square will remain the open forum from which the Greek people freely express their will.
Democracy does not fit in molds, and it cannot be silenced!
22/10/2025
