On December 6, 2024 (anniversary of the killing of Alexandros Grigoropoulos, that sparkled the December 2008 revolt) the cops escalated their “strategy of tension”:
In Athens, the cops carried out mass preventive arrests and beatings, mostly targeting comrades from the Community of Squatted Prosfygika that were going towards the gathering for the commemoration march for Alexis Grigoropoulos. Even a known lawyer, Annie Paparoussou, was beaten and detained for hours after protesting against what she described as “police abductions of citizens from the streets”.
In Thessaloniki, after the end of the protest, the cops surrounded hundreds of demonstrators at Kamara (where the protest ended). The protesters tried to move towards the city’s centre (the only way left open by the cops at that moment) but soon hundreds of cops (riot police and plain-clothes cops) started moving aggressively against them. When the protesters reached Tsimiski street (right in the centre of the most expensive commercial zone of Thessaloniki) the cops started tear-gassing the protesters, splitting them into two big groups, and then chased them. The cops surrounded these two groups, forced people to sit on the ground and tied them up with tire wrap, waiting for police busses to arrive and take them to the police headquarters.
Although residents and journalists were protesting against this unprecedented incident of massive and unprovoked arrests, all of the protesters (112 comrades in total) were taken to holding cells. Later in the evening the cops announced that the protesters were arrested on charges of “disturbing the peace”!
The following day, a big number of comrades and relatives of the arrested gathered outside the courthouse. The cops didn’t hesitate to spray-gas the relatives of the arrested, who were demanding to enter the courthouse. Then, riot police tried to break the solidarity protest, by attacking comrades and chasing them in the streets around the courthouse. Nevertheless, the comrades didn’t leave, and when the 112 arrested were released (as their trial was set for December 18) they joined them, and a 300+ strong protest left the area shouting “Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons”.
On December 17, the day before the trial, a 600 strong solidarity protest took place in Thessaloniki. When the protest reached Kamara, the cops tried to do the same as on December 6. This time, the protest was guarded by 100 protesters with helmets, batons and tear-gass masks, and the protesters made clear that they were not moving until the cops moved aside, letting protesters leave with safety. After some moments of tension, this finally happened.
The next day there was a solidarity protest in front of the courthouse. The trial was postponed for October 2, 2025.