Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis addressed Parliament regarding the controversial government amendment to protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument, which has generated significant debate. The opposition launched fierce criticism through statements about the amendment, which would prohibit public demonstrations and protests or any alteration of the monument, while four parties (PASOK, SYRIZA, New Left, Course of Freedom) filed a motion challenging its constitutionality. Additionally, the entire opposition described the amendment as divisive. Kyriakos Mitsotakis had previously argued for the importance of protecting the monument.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis entered Parliament around 5:25 PM and spoke after Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis.
“I take the floor today to defend a regulation of democratic sensitivity,” the Prime Minister began his speech. “This regulation aims to normalize public life,” he emphasized.
Necessary choice
Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed that the measures to protect the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were not an easy decision, but constituted a necessary choice. “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier symbolizes unity, the moment when Greeks stood side by side against the enemy. It honors the protagonists of victory or those who fell. We’re talking about the definition, Mr. Androulakis, Mr. Famellos, of a space for coexistence and not rivalry,” he emphasized. “What we want to decide is to protect the significance of this space. The government’s decision is affirmative,” he continued, repeating it with more decibels to cover the reactions.
“First truth, this space has been unclear between agencies for decades. It was transformed from its real purpose, to be a field of memory for the fallen of battles, into a scene of protest and exploitation,” he stressed and after an intervention by Zoe Konstantopoulou, commented: “Ms. Konstantopoulou, you are the living example of what I mentioned.”
“Obviously assemblies are allowed in Syntagma Square”
“Opposition gentlemen, let’s disconnect the historic space of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from Syntagma Square, which is traditionally a gathering place. In Syntagma Square, multiple times larger than the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier space, nothing changes, just as nothing changes in any municipality,” he said additionally. “Obviously assemblies are allowed anyway. We must decide if the right to memory is inferior to the right to protest,” he continued.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke about the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, emphasizing that just as no one would dare misuse these, there should be no issue in Greece. Speaking to Nikos Androulakis, he stressed that “the right to protection in France and the USA was never questioned.” “Democracy is not threatened when it defends its symbols, but when it is threatened by their undermining.” “The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is not a billboard for posting demands, it is a cenotaph,” he commented.
“If someone went and painted the names of the Mati victims in the Propylaea area, would it be desecration?” he asked rhetorically. “In this country there are no dead who belong to one faction or another faction, dead we should honor more or less,” he commented. “Yes, Mr. Famellos, there was also a monument for the Marfin victims, very discreet, which the extra-parliamentary Left’s events destroyed every now and then,” he emphasized.
“The victims’ relatives’ requests were accepted”
“The most important request of the relatives is for justice to be served. How will justice be served? Through the trial, which begins next March. The government sympathizes with the parent who wants to learn the truth about their child’s death, but supports Justice and the procedures that must be followed,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis continued, speaking about the requests of the relatives of the victims in the Tempe railway tragedy.
He accused politicians of exploiting parents’ grief, attributing to them “partisan games on the backs of tormented people, supposedly wearing, Ms. Konstantopoulou, the mask of solidarity.” “It is you, who, while today – let the Greek people hear this, 36 are the defendants who will be tried in March for the Tempe case, 33 will be tried for felony. Two are the New Democracy officials who will be tried because the government majority chose it,” he said additionally and continued: “Two are the supporters of the lumber, whom I don’t see here today, who exploited pain and mourning.”
The sculpture for the victims
Kyriakos Mitsotakis said and showed a photograph that there is a monument for the Tempe victims, an “aesthetic sculpture opposite Technopolis, on the initiative of the mayor of Athens. I doubt if any of the critics has visited it,” he continued. “We will not allow them to appropriate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Who? Who? Those who feel superior, feels superior, to the organized state.” “To live under the same rules, without some people arbitrarily abolishing them with ‘because I want to.’ To see what public space means in Greece in 2025.”
The Prime Minister spoke about victims of other tragedies and the change of the Presidential Guard, which “connects the past with the future.” He emphasized that “society would like to preserve the protection of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, if a dilemma were posed.”
“The division attempt is artificial”
“I consider the division attempt regarding the names of the Tempe victims completely artificial. It is a rivalry I believe without substance. Alas if memory were written on the ground and lasted as long as spray paint. This memory lives silently.” He repeated that the Tempe trial will take place, while he said that regarding train cargo “it was proven that no one tried to cover up anything.”
“Of course, the plaques to the left and right of the Evzones remind us of the monument’s character. The battles fought by the Greeks and two aphorisms of Thucydides are engraved on the plaques,” he commented. In response to a new protest by Zoe Konstantopoulou, he said “congratulations Ms. Konstantopoulou, you made the opposition your tail and Mr. Androulakis rushes to follow your every initiative.” Additionally, the presiding officer Nikos Kaklamanis commented, after a new reaction from Konstantopoulou, that “Ms. Konstantopoulou, calm down, you’re giving assists and he’s making three-pointers.”
He asked the absent Kyriakos Velopoulos why he doesn’t defend an initiative that protects national tradition. “I’m sorry because we cannot agree in this chamber even on the obviously self-evident,” he emphasized, addressing the opposition. He additionally asked to hear proposals for corrections to the amendment, but stressed that he doesn’t accept “no to everything,” as it is a malicious tactic.
