Greek indignants return

A new gathering of the Greek indignants took place on Saturday the 3^rd of September at Syndagma square. The call was for 18:00, at which time an estimate of 2,000 people had gathered in the area - some in front of the Parliament and others at the square - a number which rose with time reaching an estimated 10,000.

Walking through Amalias street, you could witness a rather striking silence and a discrete police presence with no sign of the usual barricades around the Parliament building. A large Greek flag was held horizontally by four people, in an area previously closed to access, while Loukanikos, the riot dog, was enjoying the attention from the crowd and photographers. This time the air was clean of chemical gasses, however most had a surgical mask in their hands.

Just after 21:00 the regular peoples’ assembly commenced. About an hour into the meeting some noise was heard from the top of the square coming from the Parliament. The noise sounded like people shouting, and was almost instantly followed by two stunt grenades.

Having no visual of the situation, I started walking towards Amalias street, where I realised that the riot police had now formed a line at the top side of the square. I assumed that people were moved from the area, as the road previously accessible was now guarded and the crowd had gathered closer to the square.

And than I heard a priest chanting! I instinctively turned to my left to locate the source of the sound. A priest was standing in front of the Parliament with a loudspeaker, later also asked to move away. I could sense a kind of tension in the atmosphere and moved further down the street, trying to maintain visual contact.

Minutes later the riot police entered the square, where the assembly was still taking place and people started moving to the surrounding streets. It was later published that seven arrests were made for obstructing the flow of traffic and three for attacks on police.