Education bill to pass amid protests

Parliament on Friday is expected to approve the Education Ministry’s bill allowing, under conditions, the operation, for the first time in Greece, branches of foreign universities.

The vote, however, will not be without discord as it will be accompanied by the culmination of major mobilizations outside the Parliament building in central Athens.

Speeches by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitstotaks and the political leaders will precede the vote, which will be by roll-call – at the request of leftist opposition SYRIZA and communist KKE.

The acrimony between proponents and opponents of the bill was palpable again on Thursday when the speech by Education Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis set off another round of confrontation, mainly with socialist PASOK.

“You say: ‘No big foreign universities will come.’ My answer is: ‘Then what are you afraid of?’” he said at one point, addressing the PASOK benches. 

“You are against privatization, but in favor of denationalization. What’s next? Against chocolate, for cocoa?” Pierrakakis told PASOK lawmakers.

In response, PASOK’s parliamentary representative Dimitris Mantzos declared that “it is confirmed once again that the New Democracy government is acting textbook populist: there is a dominant view and anyone who disagrees with it is being reactionary.”

“It offers chocolate, we want coffee. You have known for years that we ask for coffee, yet you continue to offer chocolate and deride us for not taking it,” he said.

Meanwhile, a decision by PASOK head Nikos Androulakis on Tuesday to compel the party’s MPs to vote against the bill has stirred tensions among its lawmakers. 

Androulakis said that PASOK has always maintained a positive attitude towards the founding of non-state, non-profit universities but only through the revision of Article 16 of the Constitution and not through the government bill that bypasses the law. During a meeting of the party’s parliamentary group, Androulakis announced that he “will not allow a rift in voting.”