INTRODUCTION
CRITICISM OF MIGRANT PUSHBACKS CONTINUES
On 8th April 2025, Frontex, the European Union’s border protection agency, announced an investigation into grave human rights violations by Greece through “pushbacks” of asylum seekers. The investigation covers 12 specific incidents, mostly occurring in 2024. Frontex could reduce funding to Greece if the outcome of its investigations is ignored.
Politico reported on 24th April 2025 that a Frontex official said the agency was considering a call to Brussels for disciplinary proceedings against Greece.
In a ruling from January 2025, Greece was criticised by the European Court of Human Rights which described the pushbacks as a systematic practice. In response, the Greek government denied the allegations and emphasised that the coast guard had rescued more than 250,000 migrants at sea.
The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Michael O’Flaherty, urged Greece to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on pushbacks in a memorandum on 6th April 2025. O’Flaherty specifically mentioned the Pylos Shipwreck of 2023, where an estimated 560 people drowned, and the Greek Shipping Ministry’s lack of cooperation with the investigation. He urged Greek authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the incident and impose appropriate punishment on those responsible. On 27th May 2025, the Piraeus Naval Court announced criminal charges for 17 coast guard members involved in the Pylos shipwreck.
Despite these criticisms, Greece has recently taken steps to further tighten its approach to migration. On 6th May 2025, Migration Minister Makis Voridis announced a new migration policy where migrants with rejected asylum claims will be jailed as they await deportation.
NEW GREEK PRESIDENT SWORN IN AND ORDERS CABINET RESHUFFLE; LEFT-WING OPPOSITION PARTIES OPPOSE
On 13th March 2025, Constantine Tassoulas, a former MP of the New Democracy Party, was sworn in as the new president of Greece. Tassoulas will perform a mostly ceremonial role for a five-year term. He succeeded Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the first woman to hold the office. His election broke with the tradition to seek cross-party consensus for the presidency as two left-wing opposition parties walked out on the vote. Two minor opposition parties abstained from the vote in protest at what they claimed was a “cover-up” of the deadly Tempi train crash in 2023. As a former parliamentary speaker, Tassoulas was viewed by victims’ families as complicit in both the cover-up and the delayed investigations.
The following day, on 14th March 2025, a cabinet reshuffle was announced in an attempt to address the declining public support for government actions, especially with regard to the train crash handling.
GREECE BANS SURROGACY FOR MALE COUPLES AND SINGLE MEN
Greece amended its Civil Code on 1st April 2025 to prohibit male same-sex couples and single men from having children through surrogacy. When the change was announced on 29th March 2025, the Greek justice minister, Giorgos Floridis, said the measure would clarify legal ambiguity over the phrase “inability to have children”. The amendment did not pose any restrictions on surrogacy for women who are unable to conceive for medical reasons.
ASSEMBLY
DEADLY TRAIN CRASH ANNIVERSARY MARKED BY MASSIVE PROTESTS AND CENSURE MOTION
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across Greece on 28th February 2025, marking the second anniversary of the Tempi train crash that killed 57 people. Protesters demanded justice for the victims and expressed widespread anger at the conservative government’s failure to properly investigate the incident or take responsibility.
The protests were reportedly even larger than those held previously at the end of January (see previous CIVICUS Monitor update). According to the BBC, rallies were organised in 346 cities and municipalities, including Athens, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Patras and Larissa, as well as solidarity actions in cities across Europe, including Brussels, Rome, and several cities in the UK.
According to some estimates, almost 430,000 people turned up to the Athens rally. While the massive demonstration was initially peaceful, clashes erupted between demonstrators and security forces. According to media reports, police deployed tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannon, after a small group of protesters hurled pavement fragments and petrol bombs at officers. Authorities reported at least 20 injuries and detained 120 people, with 27 arrests made.
Similar violence occurred in Thessaloniki, where a group of protesters clashed with riot police as the peaceful rally was ending. Demonstrators entered an archaeological site and threw rocks at officers. According to official reports, police detained 35 people.
The protests caused major disruption, with flight and rail services cancelled and public transport heavily affected. Many shops closed for the day in solidarity with the victims’ families.
On 5th March 2025, further violent demonstrations broke out in Athens. Protesters threw petrol bombs and fireworks at police outside the Greek parliament and set rubbish bins on fire. Police responded with tear gas and baton charges.
The protests followed a censure motion brought against the centre-right government by socialist and left-wing opposition parties, who accused it of shielding officials from accountability.
On 7th March 2025, the final day of the three-day parliamentary debate, more clashes erupted in Athens and Thessaloniki. Inside the parliament, protesters threw leaflets from the public gallery and were forcibly removed by police. Outside, violence escalated as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis addressed parliament following his government's survival of the vote. Protesters threw petrol bombs and flares, while police again responded with tear gas, stun grenades, and water cannon.
On 22nd May 2025, an Athens court acquitted 25 members of the anarchist group Rouvikonas (Rubicon), who had been charged with disturbing the peace during the Tempi protests. On 28th February, the group had unfurled a banner reading “Murderers” from the top floor of the offices of the railway company Hellenic Train. While the group were acquitted of disturbing the peace, 18 members received six-month suspended sentences for refusing to provide fingerprints to police.
FARMER PROTESTS IN THESSALONIKI CONTINUE AFTER MEETING WITH GOVERNMENT MINISTERS
On 19th February 2025, over a thousand farmers from central Greece travelled to Thessaloniki, accompanied by 50 tractors displaying black flags and flashing emergency lights. That evening, they blocked central roads in the city to demand government support on a range of issues, including crop losses caused by climate change.
A brief clash occurred when farmers attempted to breach police cordons near a venue where Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was present, hoping to speak with him directly about their demands.
The protest followed a meeting held on 14th February 2025 with ministers from the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Rural Affairs, arranged after several weeks of demonstrations. However, activists described the government's responses as vague and insubstantial.
NATIONWIDE GENERAL STRIKE DEMANDING HIGHER WAGES AND COLLECTIVE WAGE AGREEMENTS SHUTS DOWN PUBLIC TRANSPORT THROUGHOUT GREECE
On 9th April 2025, thousands of people joined a nationwide general strike organised by the General Confederation of Greek Workers and the Civil Servants’ Confederation. Protesters demanded higher salaries and the reinstatement of collective wage agreements.
The unions called for an end to the lingering austerity measures imposed by international creditors and pressed for the full restoration of collective bargaining rights, which were abolished following the Greek financial crisis. They stressed that rising living costs necessitate wage increases and warned that new US tariffs could further exacerbate economic pressures.
The 24-hour strike affected public services across the country, with cancelled ferries and domestic flights, and partially suspended public transport.
PALESTINE SOLIDARITY PROTESTS
On 28th May, Greek police detained 15 members of the left-wing Nea Aristera (New Left) party after they unfurled a Palestinian flag at the Acropolis. Among those taken into custody was the Secretary of the party’s Central Committee. The protesters, who chanted “Free Palestine” and “Stop the Genocide,” were accused by authorities of staging an unauthorised demonstration.
In a statement following the detentions, the New Left criticised Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government for what it described as “tolerance and silence” in the face of “war crimes” committed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The party affirmed that the global movement for peace is gaining strength, both internationally and within Greece.
On other occasions during the reporting period, pro-Palestinian protests took place without incident. Thousands marched in cities including Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras, demonstrating sustained public support for the Palestinian cause.
However, there are still some concerns about the authorities’ response to pro-Palestinian activism, particularly in light of the treatment of foreign students involved in earlier protests. As previously reported by the CIVICUS Monitor, nine nationals from the United Kingdom and other EU member states were issued deportation orders after participating in a demonstration at the University of Athens School of Law on 14th May 2024. Authorities designated them as “unwanted aliens” and claimed they posed a threat to public order and national security. They were arrested alongside 19 Greek students during an occupation of the Law School in solidarity with Palestine.
In March 2025, the Athens Single-Member Criminal Court unanimously acquitted the 28 activists, both Greek and foreign nationals, of all charges. These included disrupting a public service, causing damage, violating laws on weapons and flares, and disobedience for refusing to be fingerprinted.
Despite the court’s ruling, the nine non-Greek students remain at risk of deportation and may still face administrative penalties, including travel bans. In April 2025, the administrative court postponed their hearings, leaving their legal status in limbo.
EXPRESSION
COURT RULES IN FAVOUR OF JOURNALISTS IN “PREDATORGATE” SLAPP YET STILL IMPOSES DEFAMATION FINE
On 8th April 2025, the Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Athens ruled in favour of journalists from Reporters United and Efimerida ton Syntakton (EfSyn), who had been sued by Grigoris Dimitriadis, former secretary general and nephew of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Dimitriadis filed the lawsuit after being linked to the spyware scandal known as “Predatorgate”, previously reported on by the CIVICUS Monitor. He resigned from his government post following revelations that Predator spyware was used to surveil journalist Thanasis Koukakis, opposition leader Nikos Androulakis, and others.
The journalists’ reporting revealed that Dimitriadis’s phone number had been used to target individuals while he was serving as the Secretary General of the PM’s Office and was responsible for overseeing the Greek National Intelligence Service (EYP). It did not allege that Dimitriadis was himself responsible for the hacking. In its ruling, the court found the reporting to be accurate. However, it deemed one headline published by EfSyn defamatory and ordered the outlet to pay EUR 3,000 in damages and EUR 450 in legal costs. EfSyn intends to appeal.
The International Press Institute and the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe classified the case as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). However, Greek law does not currently recognise SLAPPs. Although the SLAPPs Observatory was established in December 2024 to monitor such cases, lawmakers have yet to implement the EU’s anti-SLAPP directive or introduce protections against abusive litigation.
MEDIA FREEDOM REPORTS EXPRESS CONCERN OVER DECLINE
In April 2025, the 2025 Media Freedom Report published by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) raised serious concerns about the state of media freedom in Greece and across the EU. Among other things, the report expressed concerns about political interference in the media in connection with the selective distribution of public resources to favour pro-government media and political influence on appointments to oversight bodies. It also drew attention to growing threats to journalists’ safety and the continued use of SLAPPs to silence critical reporting.
On 8th May 2025, Human Rights Watch released a report reinforcing these concerns. Based on interviews with 34 journalists, academics, and media experts, the report found that 15 had faced threats for their work. It described the constraints on media freedom in Greece as both “pervasive and deliberate”, citing increased harassment, intimidation, surveillance and legal action against journalists since the New Democracy government took office in July 2019.
ART EXHIBITION TARGETED BY FAR-RIGHT POLITICIANS
Aphrodite Latinopoulou, Member of the European Parliament and president of the far-right Voice of Reason party, filed a lawsuit against the National Gallery in Athens over its exhibition “The Allure of the Bizarre”, which reimagined Greek Orthodox iconography. According to the Associated Press, the exhibit featured caricatures of religious figures alongside engravings by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. Latinopoulou announced the lawsuit on Instagram on 6th June 2025, stating she would seek an injunction to halt the exhibition, arguing it insulted religious sentiment. “The freedom of art stops where the insult to our Faith begins”, she wrote.
One month earlier, on 10th May 2025, Thessaloniki MP Nikos Papadopoulos of the fundamentalist Niki party vandalised several pieces by artist Christophoros Katsadiotis in the same exhibition. According to a statement from the National Gallery, Papadopoulos and another individual tore down four artworks and threw them to the floor. Photographs from the scene showed broken glass surrounding the picture frames. He was detained at the scene and later charged with a minor property damage offence, according to eKathimerini. Papadopoulos called the paintings “blasphemous icons”.
GOVERNMENT LINKED TO PR FIRM THAT OPPOSITION DESCRIBES AS “PROPAGANDA MACHINE”
On 11th April 2025, digital media outlet Inside Story revealed ties between the ruling New Democracy party and PR firm Blue Skies. The investigation found that 15 Blue Skies employees managed the social media accounts of Omada Alithias (“Truth Team”), a platform accused of anonymously targeting the families of Tempi train crash victims, journalists who had reported on the crash, as well as other government critics. Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis dismissed these allegations, saying Truth Team had “played a historic role in defending truth and countering our opponents’ propaganda”.
The opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) condemned Truth Team as a “propaganda machine” in a statement on 29th April 2025, and demanded an investigation into the party’s financial ties to Blue Skies. Half of Blue Skies' staff reportedly hold current or former roles within the Prime Minister’s office or the New Democracy party. Some, including a member of the Prime Minister’s communications office, remain on the firm's payroll.
On 7th May 2025, Syriza party president Socrates Famellos filed a formal indictment at the Athens First Instance Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an investigation into whether public funds had been funnelled towards “propaganda and character assassination” in order to defend the government.
On 16th June 2025, Dimokratia reported new evidence of links between the Truth Team and the governing New Democracy party. According to their reporting, the original Truth Team website was launched in 2012 by individuals employed directly by New Democracy, before the team was moved to the payroll of the private company Blue Skies around the time of the 2019 election.