Police union banned from holding meeting in Exarchia

Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Toskas on Wednesday said authorities had banned the union representing Greek police officers, known by its acronym POASY, from holding a meeting planned for Thursday evening in central Exarchia Square, a traditional stronghold for anarchists where police traditionally tread lightly.

POASY had planned the event in a bid to extend a kind of truce to anarchists with whom officers often clash in the neighborhood.


Toskas has insisted, however, that a police gathering in the district would be provocative and foolhardy and called on unionists to “get off their high horses” in comments to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

POASY said it has the approval of municipal authorities to hold the meeting in Exarchia while anarchists have called a simultaneous meeting in the capital’s upmarket Kolonaki Square, apparently mocking the police initiative.