Free speech in Greece, only for Merkel?

From Keep Talking Greece blog today:

Merkel in Athens: Police Bans Protest Rallies in City’s Centre! Are We in State of Emergency?

The elderly recalled the days during the junta (1967-1974), when puppet government and the colonels were imposing bans on ‘meetings and gathering with participation of more than three people’. The decision of Greek police issued on Monday noon to ban protest rallies in downtown Athens during the visit of Merkel must have indeed caused a creepy thrill on the spines of millions of Greeks.

Despite the draconian security measures, with 7,000 riot policemen, snipers, helicopters and iron fences and barricades, Greek police decided to ban the mass protest rallies in downtown Athens from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Tuesday, October 9th, 2012. Apparently out of fear for the outbreak of riots in the broader area of Syntagma Square and the German embassy near the War Museum.

Greek police issued a statement that any public gatherings and marches would be banned between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Tuesday in a large area around the city centre. It said the decision was being taken in the interests of public safety and the city’s “socioeconomic life.”

The police decision triggered strong reactions also among the coalition government parties PASOK and Democratic Left that issued statements saying that they do not agree with the ban as it forbids the expression of polyphony and different opinion.

In a joint statement, public and private sector unions ADEDY and GSEE announced that they will not bow to [the] police order and that they will hold their protest rallies as scheduled. Trade unions have scheduled to hold their protest at 1 p.m. at Omonia and Syntagma Square, while the party of Independent Greeks has planned to stage a protest outside the German embassy at 6 p.m.

Greeks step up fight against austerity: here.

As the Greek government prepares a new package of cuts, Julie Sherry reports on the growing strike wave that has put them under pressure: here.

Greek anti-fascist protesters ‘tortured by police’ after Golden Dawn clash. Fifteen people arrested in Athens says they were subjected to what their lawyer describes as an Abu Ghraib-style humiliation: here.