Edu Min on freshly upgraded uni asylum law: 'It is a great challenge'

Expanding on Thursday’s plenary approval and passing of Article 64's provision for the protection of academic freedoms by equating university sites with common public space, and the exercise of authorities' powers in university sites thereof, Education Minister Niki Kerameus said that "it is a great challenge to abolish asylum law and lawlessness, and voting on the institutional framework is a first step, albeit very important and necessary, but not enough," speaking to Athens-Macedonian News Agency's (ANA) radio, 'Praktoreio 104,9 FM'.

"The implementation of this provision is a big bet," said Kerameus, and noted that "significant joint action has already been taken by both the Ministry of Education and Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis, on how this can be achieved, how to best put this provision into practice."

"We are restoring asylum in its truest sense, we want the university to be an exclusive space where one can speak freely, express one's self freely, without fear of being attacked on site a while later for his views-for what he said," she stressed, and assured that "the police will only intervene when needed, as we certainly want this provision to work in a sense of deterrence."

Kerameus reiterated that she has "full confidence in the relevant minister-that he will implement the provision in the best possible way-and the government's hope is that it should not be enforced, instead be used in a deterrent way, passing along a clear message to all those-essentially external, off-site elements-who are acting illegally, that they will no longer be able to do that within universities," she said.