The SYRIZA-ANEL government responded with brutal repression to the massive and dynamic mobilizations by teachers in the framework of their 24-hour strike on Friday 11/1/19, against the government draft bill for the new appointment system that is being discussed in the Parliament. As the teachers denounce, this bill is a pre-announcement of the dismissal of thousands of substitute teachers, through the criteria adopted in the new recruitment system.

In Athens, when the march reached the official residence of the prime minister, the teachers' representatives demanded the police vans who had blocked access to be removed, in order to meet with the prime minister.

The police responded with an excessive use of chemicals, shooting blindly with stun grenades against the teachers while being behind the police vans, resulting in injuries of protesters. Among them, the KKE MP Yiannis Delis, Thodora Drimala, a member of the Administration Board of the Greek Teachers' Federation and a PAME cadre, and Yiannis Eris, a university student elected in the Administration Board of the faculty of history and archaeology. The KKE MP suffered a burn and an eardrum rupture and is hospitalized at the Evangelismos Hospital.

In an attempt to renounce the government's heavy responsibility for the attack, the Minister of Citizen Protection, Olga Gerovasili, in her statement talked about ... "unacceptable and politically dangerous" actions of "some men of the Riot Police", while the Hellenic Police Headquarters rushed to order an official administrative inquiry ...

The Press Office of the CC of the KKE issued the following announcement on the brutal attack against the teachers' demonstration by the Riot Police: "The KKE condemns the brutal attack against the teachers' mass demonstration outside the Parliament by the Riot Police, that even shoot blindly against the crowd with tear gas and stun grenades. The result of this attack was the injury of protesters, including the KKE MP Yiannis Delis and Thodora Drimala, a member of the Administration Board of the Greek Teachers' Federation and a PAME cadre, who were transferred to Evangelismos Hospital. This attack shows that the SYRIZA-ANEL government has no hesitation in imposing its policy, which in the field of teachers is expressed in the captivation and unemployment of thousands of contract and non-appointed teachers, as well as in the thousands of gaps in schools. "

The KKE parliamentary representative Thanasis Pafilis strongly protested about the event to the Minister of Citizen Protection.

In a statement, the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoumpas noted:

"Today's brutal attack by police forces against teachers, which resulted in the serious injury of the KKE MP Yiannis Delis, who is being hospitalized, proves that the SYRIZA - ANEL government is ruthless.

In this way, it seems that Mr. Tsipras intends - as all the previous ones did - to "tie up all the loose ends", i.e. to complete the dirty work he has undertaken."

14.01.2019