Breaking news
© Reuters. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis addresses lawmakers at parliament, ahead of a vote on a bill which lets in foreign places non-public universities to construct up branches in Greece, in Athens, March 8, 2024. REUTERS/Louiza Vradi
ATHENS (Reuters) -Greek students threw petrol bombs at police who responded with shuffle gasoline in central Athens on Friday, hours earlier than parliament modified into expected to pass legislation that will allow foreign places non-public universities to construct up branches within the country.
Thousands of students admire been protesting peacefully for weeks against the reform that they roar will devalue levels from public universities, nonetheless anger boiled over factual as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis instructed lawmakers to vote the bill by means of.
“We are shy that … if we stop tackle to graduate we’ll never be ready to secure a job any place,” acknowledged Stratos Katselis, 25. “No young person this present day can assemble any variety of idea for the prolonged bustle. All we gawk are dreary ends.”
Mitsotakis, who won a 2d time length in June last twelve months, acknowledged the law will encourage reverse an exodus of tens of hundreds of Greek students to universities abroad, a trot on an economic system aloof convalescing from a decade-prolonged monetary crisis.
The bill may perchance well also encourage align Greece with the leisure of the European Union and boost competitors in elevated education, he acknowledged.
The bill is vulnerable to be permitted as the conservative authorities controls 158 lawmakers within the 300-seat legislature.
“Parliament isn’t most energetic known as to vote on a pivotal bill nonetheless to approve a thorough and heroic education reform for enhance and social justice,” Mitsotakis acknowledged. “This will eventually allow non-say, non-profitable establishments to operate in our country.”
Students, with strengthen from some lecturers and college group, ought to not jubilant. One group broke some distance from the demonstration and threw petrol bombs at police who dispersed them with shuffle gasoline, Reuters witnesses and a police official acknowledged.
The bill is segment of the authorities’s reform agenda that also entails a identical intercourse marriage law that modified into passed last month.
Greece spends 3%-4% of its annual economic output on education, below the EU moderate. But Mitsotakis acknowledged the bill stipulated elevated funding for say universities.
