One-minute speeches on matters of political importance
Dimitrios Papadimoulis (GUE/NGL). - (EL) Mr President, Greek society abhors violence and that is precisely why it was so shocked by the murder of a fifteen-year-old boy by a policeman. It caused young people to take to the streets in peaceful protest because it was the spark that ignited a fire and brought other impasses to the fore: scandals, inequalities, inflation, unemployment, nepotism, corruption and a lack of rule of law. The Court of Justice of the European Communities has often condemned the Greek authorities over recent years for displays of excessive violence and high-handedness, which have gone unpunished. I call, Mr President, on you and on all wings of Parliament to do as the Greek parliament did in memory of this fifteen-year-old boy and for the European Parliament, as the guardian of human dignity and human rights, to observe one minute's silence now in memory of the young, fifteen-year-old boy who was murdered in Athens a week ago.