ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th January, 2019) The Greek police fired tear gas and also used stun grenades against teachers protesting a planned law on new recruitment regulations, and a parliamentarian from the country's Communist Party as well as a teacher union leader were injured during these clashes, the country's public order minister, Olga Gerovasili, said in a statement on Friday, slamming the police's actions.
On Friday, around 2,000 people staged a rally in the center of Athens to call on the government to reject an education ministry bill to change the way education professionals are hired. The bill is currently under public consultation. The clashes with the police took place when protesters tried to break through to the country's prime minister's residence.
"I qualify the actions of some people from the police special forces as unacceptable and politically dangerous, since they blindly applied tear gas and hand grenades against protesters, as a result of which Yannis Dellis, a parliament member from the Communist Party, was injured, as well as Thodora Drimala, a member of the Greek Teacher Federation and the All-Workers Militant Front," Gerovasili said.
The Communist Party and the left-wing Popular Unity party have condemned the authorities' actions, while the police slammed the violence by its members as unacceptable as well.
"Improper actions by police that violate the guaranteed rights of the citizens are no way acceptable for the police leadership, and it is from this point of view that they will be studied within the framework of the instituted inquiry," the police said in a statement.
The police added that administrative investigation into the attack on Dellis had been promptly launched.
A new rally is scheduled for Monday, according to the union of secondary and higher educators.
