ANTI-BIOMETRIC ID CARD PROTESTS IN GREECE DRAW THOUSANDS

Mon 11 September 2023:

Greeks protested in Athens in their thousands against the upcoming implementation of biometric ID cards, which they saw as a step toward the establishment of a surveillance society.

“No to electronic slavery” and “democracy has referendums, fascism decrees,” were two common slogans at Sunday’s rally which police put at 2,500 strong.

“We don’t want our personal data to be used,”, said one marcher, Dionysis Alexopoulos. “Perhaps with this new card they’ll be able to control our access to hospitals or other public places if for example we aren’t vaccinated,” he added.

On Sunday at Syntagma Square in central Athens, people protested against the ID cards being rolled out in Greece later this month. pic.twitter.com/OGkKloS1gp

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) September 11, 2023

“This serious subject should be put to a referendum and not decided anti-democratically by the government,” said another marcher, Sofia Kanelopoulou.

The Greek government announced last week that the procedure for obtaining new identity cards would begin on September 25, noting Greece’s obligation to comply with European regulations on “strengthening the security” of ID documents.

According to a 2019 treaty, all members of the union must issue new biometric cards by 2026.

Despite claims from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that the new cards featured “neither a chip nor a camera,” around 2,000 people demonstrated in Thessaloniki last Sunday.

Last week, Archbishop Ieronymos, head of the Orthodox Church of Greece, advocated “prudence and wisdom” and announced that the holy synod, the church’s highest ecclesiastical body, will be making a decision on the matter.

The elimination of religious references from Greek identity cards in 2000 generated outrage in a country where the Orthodox Church is not separated from the state.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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