Editorial Ta Nea: Enough is enough!

Beatings. Pillorying. Building walls inside university campus buildings. Death threats. Property damage. Operational headquarters that serve as a base for attacks.

Universities have become a sort of state within the state, where members of anti-authority groups, anarchists, troublemakers, and provocateurs take the law into their hands, settle accounts, punish, seek revenge, or even blackmail.

This situation must stop. Society must cry out, ‘Enough is enough!’”. Everyone, whether they are directly involved in the operation of universities or are in any way active in public affairs, must assume their responsibilities at long last.

The government must implement its electoral pledges and take the necessary measures to impose order, including the establishment of a university police force. It has already delayed too long and that is interpreted as a sign of weakness. The time has come to act boldly.

Opposition parties must stop hiding and must contribute to making universities what they should be – a place for teaching, dialogue, innovation, and the exchange of ideas. Invoking the experience of foreign countries is not productive, as in no Western country do universities have to grapple with such a pitiful spectacle.

Professors must transcend their fears and reservations and realise that without their cooperation and active participation, no policing mechanism can be effective. Today their colleagues are being attacked, but tomorrow it will be them.

University students must understand that they cannot remain indifferent to violence or distrust those who want the smooth operation of universities.

The troublemakers are a minority and they must be isolated.

Policemen must always be guided by legality and act with self-restraint and professionalism, and they should know that they too are accountable for their actions.

Judges should make sure that those who are responsible for acts of violence are punished in order to put an end to impunity, and the media should highlight problems without exploiting them to their own benefit.