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Violence of whom against whom?

There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sun Mar 18th, 2012 at 06:40:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well.... the recent polls have given the impression to many that the anti-status quo forces will finally get a chance to -let's say- make an impact on policy by having greater representation.
An outcome which would relegate them (once more) into irrelevancy might not be so readily accepted as the "true will" of the people and all that will be needed to transform their justified indignation from protests to outright violence would be for ex. accusations of fraud or other conspiracy theories which are much more believable in the current Greek political context.

The electoral law is rigged and nobody disputes that. All it takes, is for 10% of the vote to be wasted on parties that never had a chance to gain 1 seat and other small parties currently polling at 3%-5% not making it afterall. PASOK (my opinion) will probably go as high as 15%-18% which will lead to a centrist govnt lead by.... the Troika/IMF candidate, Papademos.

by Euroliberal on Mon Mar 19th, 2012 at 06:08:58 AM EST
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Exiled Online:
DISPATCH FROM GREECE: YOGURT AS A FORM OF POLITICAL PROTEST
(By Kostas Kallergis, MARCH 11, 2012)
Originally, "yogurt throwing" was a means of protest against authority by Greek youngsters in the late 1950s. They were called "Teddy Boys", a name borrowed from the homonymous British subculture. You see, food throwing was traditionally a form of protest (preferable rotten eggs or tomatoes) but it was only in 1950s when the plastic cup substituted yogurt's classic ceramic pot, a marketing move that made yogurt a non-lethal weapon. The trend of yogurt-throwing was fiercely fought by the authorities with the legendary "Law 4000/1958″ according to which offenders were arrested, had their heads shaved and paraded through the streets of Athens.

...

The law was withdrawn in 1983, by Andreas Papandreou. In 1997, a builder who was member of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) threw a yogurt on the then Minister of Employment, Miltiadis Papaioannou (now Minister of Justice) and his then Deputy Minister Christos Protopappas (now PASOK's Parliamentary Group Representative) . The court decided that yogurt throwing was not an offense that had to be tried automatically but only if a lawsuit is filed by the victim.

...

According to an article of Eleftherotypia newspaper, written by Georgia Linardou, in 2011 two members of the government and one MP have been attacked with yogurts. Last March, the vice president of the government Theodoros Pangalos was attacked while having dinner at a town just outside Athens. Some months later, Minister of Interior Haris Kastanidis was attacked in a similar fashion while watching "Midnight in Paris" at a cinema in Thessaloniki. Liana Kanelli, an MP with the Communist Party of Greece, has also been attacked with yogurt in June 2011, while she was trying to get through a block of protesters in order to reach the Parliament for the vote on the Mid-Term Program.



There are three stories about the euro crisis: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth. -- Paul Krugman
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Mon Mar 19th, 2012 at 09:44:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
For the March 25th independence day parades, the anti-terrorist squad and the secret service will be on the look-out for people carrying yoghurt or eggs in their bags. The major media (regime-friendly all of them) and various state-intellectuals  are on a campaign to convince everyone that these forms of protest are morally equivalent to shooting people.
A batch of protesters who booed the President in a previous occasion are on trial now for "insulting the office of the president" or something equally North-Korean sounding...

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake
by talos (mihalis at gmail dot com) on Mon Mar 19th, 2012 at 10:07:54 AM EST
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