The 92 year old musical composer Mikis Theodorakis, an icon of the Greek left and longtime leftist activist, addressed hundreds of thousands of Greeks in Syntagma Square during a massive rally demonstrating against the use of the name “Macedonia” by the northern neighboring nation.
Arriving in a wheelchair with assistance from the organizers, Theodorakis gave an impassioned speech citing past Greek heroes and calling the coalition government currently rising Greece “minorities,” and shouting that “they are destroying the country.”
Theodorakis called on Greeks to refuse the existence of any Macedonia other than the Greek one.
“Beyond patriotic fervor, there is real anger here at the #Macedonia rally – against politicians, the elites, those “selling out the nation,” according to Giorgos Christides, a reporter for the German DerSpiegel.
Beyond patriotic fervor, there is real anger here at the #Macedonia rally – against politicians, the elites, those „selling out the nation“. Feelings last seen during the wave of anti-austerity protests. Greece’s political system challenged again, this time from the right pic.twitter.com/w87vix4B6Y
— Giorgos Christides (@g_christides) February 4, 2018
Organizers claimed more than 1.5 million people attended the rally but no official counts have come from Greek police or government sources, which themselves could be perceived as dubious.
Two weeks ago during a similar rally in Thessaloniki, Greece’s national broadcaster ERT reported early on that “tens of protestors” had gathered in Thessaloniki and official police estimates placed the Thessaloniki around at under 100,000.
Η κορυφαία είδηση του μήνα #ΦΕΚ_news pic.twitter.com/25Sy67Wu1e
— Patakiaras Nick (@NPatakiaras) January 23, 2018
But the Thessaloniki rally photos showed hundreds of thousands in attendance and the government downplayed the rally.
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