Blame game ensues over campus police
The antics that unfolded last week in front of the gates of the University of Athens (EKPA) and National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) campuses confirmed fears that establishing a police force on the grounds of higher education institutions will be a difficult task, both politically and operationally.
The government passed legislation establishing the force in February 2021, but the constant postponements of its implementation has been seen as sending a message of political ambivalence.
The Citizens’ Protection Ministry has blamed universities for not embracing the scheme for better campus security and deploying turnstiles, while academic institutions have slammed police for not having properly planned the project’s overall implementation.
The Education Ministry is implicitly distancing itself from the choices made by the Citizens’ Protection Ministry, while opposition parties, each from their own ideological perspectives, have lashed out against the government, fishing for votes among a wider audience.
Kathimerini understands that the Citizens’ Protection Ministry, which is responsible for the establishment of the University Protection Groups, as they are called, at key campuses in Athens and Thessaloniki has adopted a “wait-and-see” approach, hoping the initial reactions against the force by students will eventually subside. However, this lack of consensus on the political level is seen as the first obstacle to its smooth establishment.
“This is the basic condition for the success of any difficult reforms that aim to break down decades-old rigidities and mindsets. The refusal – albeit with different arguments – of the opposition parties to back the plan was evident when the government announced its intention to establish the institution of a campus police force,” a professor at Athens Law School told Kathimerini.
