By Tuesday evening a small tent camp had sprung up on Syntagma Square, right opposite the Greek parliament. On Wednesday the crowd arrived. Police counted about 10,000 people walking from the old university building towards parliament, organisers claimed more, and similar rallies took place in more than 50 towns, from Thessaloniki and Patras to Larissa and Crete.
Behind the call stood groups representing undergraduates and secondary pupils, plus the unions of teachers, lecturers and public employees; their federation ADEDY turned the day into a strike. Pensioners joined in. Their wish list was long but coherent: more funding for public schools, universities and hospitals, better wages and pensions, and some relief from living costs that have outpaced incomes.
Housing came up again and again. Students said decent rooms near campus had become unaffordable and called for rent controls and more state support. Younger pupils spoke about packed classrooms, missing teachers, mounting exam pressure and barely any free time. The old chant “Bread, Education, Freedom” rang out alongside a newer one demanding money for schools rather than wars.
There was a strong European flavour as well. Some banners were written in French, and pupils chanted a slogan linking Athens and Paris in a shared fight for free state education, tying their cause to the student unrest across the border. Organisers described the day as one strand of a wider movement across the continent.
Riot police lined the route and closed side streets, while some shopkeepers closed up just in case. Unlike the scenes in France last weekend, though, Athens stayed calm and the crowd had dispersed by around two in the afternoon. The government will still have to answer the question the crowd kept asking: who pays for the classroom, the clinic and the rent?
