Gov’t spokesman says metro to reopen on weekend

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou said the Athens metro would probably be up and running over the weekend following a police crackdown early Friday to end an eight-day strike by workers.

“All issues will be dealt with over the weekend and the metro will start working again,” Kedikoglou told Mega television channel, adding that “the duty of the government is to enforce the law so that society does not suffer.”

Responding to opposition claims that the government’s intervention to end the metro standoff amounted to “unchecked authoritarianism,” Kedikoglou remarked that authoritarianism is, rather, “the total disregard for judicial decisions, indifference in the face of the law and of society as a whole.”

The government spokesman played down objections expressed by Democratic Left over the decision by authorities to issue a civil mobilization order to force the protesters back to work, saying that the stance taken by the junior coalition partner did not imply that it did not want court decisions to be enforced.

Source: ekathimerini.com