10/09/2026
Thessaloniki International Fair 2026:A sea of tens of thousands of people protested in Thessaloniki
Statements
On Saturday 5 September 2026, in Thessaloniki, workers, farmers, the self-employed, young men and women, and retirees from across the country gathered in Thessaloniki to form a mighty river of struggle. The streets echoed with slogans, demonstrating that the people—organized and determined—are fighting to assert their rights in the face of the anti-people policies of capitalist profits and war!
The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, attended the nationwide mass rally and made the following statement to the media: “At a time when the people are groaning under the burden of high prices, low wages and pensions, the commodification of education and health care, as well asexcessive taxation, Mr. Mitsotakis’s government, from the Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) with its «Greece 2030» roadmap, along with the other parties of the convenient opposition, are handing out crumbs while consenting to the policy of intensified exploitation, war budgets, Greece’s participation in wars, and imperialist plans, spending billions of the Greek people’s money on this.
The people’s demand, here and now is: Give money for wages and pensions! No sacrifices for their profits and wars! Provide money for healthcare, education, social welfare, wages and pensions — we will keep repeating this message.
With the KKE at the forefront, alongside the workers’, farmers’, and broader popular movements, all the popular strata of our country, take to the streets of struggle!”
MAS: University Students’ demands were heard loud and clear outside the Thessaloniki International Fair
The Students’ Struggle Front (MAS) salutes the university students who took part in the magnificent nationwide popular rally at the Thessaloniki International Fair, alongside tens of thousands of workers, poor farmers, self-employed people and retirees who came from every corner of the country and filled the streets of Thessaloniki, sending a message of struggle, hope and counterattack.
As it notes:
“The unprecedented scenes of tens of thousands of demonstrators whose slogans ‘shook’ the city of Thessaloniki left their own mark on the opening of the Thessaloniki International Fair. The real announcements were those made by the working people and the youth of the country, who brought their own demands to the fore for education, life and work in line with modern needs.
Student Unions from every corner of Greece joined their voices with the workers. From Athens to Thessaloniki and from Patras and Ioannina to Xanthi, students demonstrated and demanded free education, degrees that matter and jobs with rights. They demonstrated against the policy of the governments and the European Union, which are ‘building’ a university bound to the dictates of the war economy, where degrees and knowledge are treated as commodities, research is subordinated to war planning, and student welfare is being slashed at the expense of students’ needs.
Outside the Thessaloniki International Fair, the university students’ demands were heard loud and clear: their opposition to the constitutional revision concerning Article 16 and the establishment of private universities promoted by the ND government and supported by PASOK, Tsipras’ party and others; their demand for increased funding for universities and substantial support for student housing; and their opposition to the unacceptable law on removal from the student registry.
The youth, like the people as a whole, are not taken in by the announcements of old and new ‘saviours’ who hand out crumbs and present support for the business groups as a way out for the people. We know very well that, for us to win the education and life we deserve, they must lose — from their profits.
We pick up the baton from the magnificent moments of the rally in Thessaloniki and step up information, organization and the struggle for our demands through our Student Unions. We strengthen the coordination of Student Unions, with the next major milestone being the nationwide day of action for student housing on Wednesday, 16 September!”
