The November 17 anniversary test

The upcoming anniversary of the 1973 student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic on November 17 is a test for everyone. The government will obviously be judged on its operational management. But the event will also be a test for the opposition – both leftist SYRIZA and the smaller parties.

It is an opportunity for those who reject violence verbally to prove that they mean it and that they will no longer tolerate the descent of the anniversary into a ritual of destruction and street clashes. Though the one side calls it “normality” and the other “social peace,” they both refer to the same right. And they are now called upon to safeguard it in practice.