ATHENS – While the Greek government rolled out the red carpet for a visiting United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken – both sides congratulating each other – he ran into anti-American demonstrations as well.

The youth division of the Communist Party of Greece and the party’s workers union, PAME, held a protest outside the US Embassy in the Greek capital, the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) reported.

Hundreds of protesters chanted that Blinken wasn’t welcome and raised banners depicting slogans against American foreign policies, said Efimerida Syntakton, a common newspaper in Greece among leftist parties.

They shouted “Out of NATO, out of the bases, no participation in the interventions,” according to the report, an apparent reference to the US – and Greek – support for Ukraine over the invasion of Russia.

University student unions and leftist organizations held a separate protest in Athens, marching to the US Embassy, while gatherings were held in the port city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece and in Chania on Crete.

There was no apparent reaction from Greece’s major opposition SYRIZA, which ahead of winning elections in 2015 – and ousted in 2019 – had a strong anti-American element and wanted Greece out of NATO but reneged.