ATHENS — "This year's annivesary for the Polytechnic is different. The pandemic and the general quarantine prevent commemorative events but we will all be present in a different way," opposition Movement for Change (KINAL) leader Fofi Gennimata said on Tuesday, the 47th anniversary of the student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic against the military junta then ruling Greece.

Gennimata noted that the messages of the Polytechnic are in the hearts and the minds of progressive people.

She made a plea that this fear should not be allowed "to divide us or deprive us of hope but should make us stronger so we can stand together, determined and united, with young people leading the way, with our thoughts on those that are and will be tested."

"With our values, ideas and struggles as our weapons for an erect, proud and just society. The Polytechnic is here and waiting for us, [to come] healthy and strong," concluded Gennimata.

A delegation from opposition Movemement for Change (KINAL) on Tuesday laid a wreath at the Polytechnic monument.

"We are here this year as well, on the anniversary of the heroic uprising of 1973, with respect for the extraordinary conditions due to the pandemic. We are here to honour the memory of those that fought in the Polytechnic and of the timeless struggles for freedom , democracy and justice," stated party's secretary Manolis Christodoulakis. "Especially this year, we should join together to send a strong message of unity against authoritarianism and the polarisation that is fuelling new divisions," he added.

Christodoulakis also noted that PASOK and the Movement for Change were and will be on the front line of the struggles to guarantee democracy, unity, national consensus and protection of public health.