Important events in Greece in 2025 on our website

The participation of the workers and youth in today’s 24-hour national general strike on 28 February was huge, exactly two years after the railway crime, when two trains, a freight train and a passenger train, collided in the area of Tempe, near the city of Larissa, killing 57 people, mostly university students.

Hundreds of thousands of workers condemned the causes of the crime, i.e. capitalist profit, the EU policy of liberalizing the railway market, with disastrous consequences for the workers and the popular strata, in 200 strike rallies held all over the country and in cities abroad, including the one in Athens in front of the Greek parliament. They demanded that all political and criminal responsibilities for the crime of Tempe be attributed and condemned the policy that sacrifices human life on the altar of profit.

Thousands of strikers in Athens and dozens of other cities in Greece honoured Workers’ May Day, a day that symbolizes the struggle of workers around the world for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man, with a mass strike rally.

Workers from dozens of sectors and workplaces, as well as university and school students, self-employed and women gathered at the strike rallies and made it clear that they choose their lives, rights, and needs over profits based on exploitation, poverty, barbarity, and war.

Exactly 80 years ago, here in this city, in Berlin, the Red Flag flew, the banner of the first socialist state, the Soviet Union, which had been raised triumphantly in the Reichstag on 1 May 1945, marking the defeat of the so-called “invincible armies of the Nazi German state”. Germany surrendered unconditionally at dawn on 9 May 1945.

The KKE honours all those who fought and gave their lives for the defeat of fascism and the imperialist Axis of states that constituted it at that time.

We honour and defend from blatant distortion the enormous contribution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the Red Army, which bore the brunt of the war, as well as the Communist Parties all over the world, which led the national liberation and anti-imperialist struggles. The KKE is proud to have been the inspiration, organizer and lifeblood of the great National Liberation Front (EAM).

“Panspoudastiki KS”, the list supported by KNE in the universities, came first for the fourth year running in the university student elections held throughout Greece on Wednesday 14 May, with 33.64% of the vote and 17,313 votes. The list supported by the New Democracy government (DAP) came second with 23.93%, while the list of the social-democratic PASOK (PASP) came third with 10.88%. The forces of SYRIZA, also social-democratic, won only 0.64%.

On Sunday 15 June, workers in Attica joined together to protest against the slaughter of the Palestinian people and the war in the Middle East, the flames of which are spreading dangerously. They denounced Greece’s involvement in the massacres being carried out on behalf of the US, NATO, the EU and Israel.

With the genocide of the Palestinian people ongoing and the murderous state of Israel also attacking Iran, the All Workers’ Militant Front (PAME), trade unions, the Greek Committee for International Détente and Peace (EEDYE), the Federation of Women in Greece (OGE), and university and school students gathered outside the Israeli embassy to give their own response. They denounced the violence, occupation and genocide, as well as the new attacks launched by the state of Israel. They demanded that the government cease all cooperation with and support for the Israeli murderers, and immediately recognize the Palestinian state within the borders of June 1967, in accordance with the unanimous decision of the Greek Parliament in 2015.

On 25 June 2025, a spectacular tribute concert was held at the packed Panathenaic Stadium, where the first modern Olympic Games were held, to commemorate Mikis Theodorakis, a historic figure in music and the Greek people’s struggle for freedom, peace, and social justice.

Organized by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece and Mikis Theodorakis’ family to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our great composer’s birth, the concert left an indelible mark on the memories of those who attended.

‘With the peoplesall the way to freedom, against the system of injustice and war!’. This message was spread by the young KNE members and friends from all over Greece who met at the 34th Anti-Imperialist Camp of KNE in Alissos, Achaia, from 2 to 6 July 2025.

The events culminated in a large rally in Patras on Friday evening, at which Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, addressed the crowd, and ThodorisKotsandis, Secretary of the Central Committee of the KNE, delivered the keynote speech. Large anti-imperialist demonstrations were held at the US-NATO bases in the region (Araxos and Andravida) on Saturday morning 5 July.

On Sunday evening, 21 September, a large gathering and concert celebrating the music of Mikis Theodorakis with the theme “For the bread, the light and the song of the whole world” took place in Izmir. This was the second concert organized by the Central Committees of the CP of Greece and the CP of Turkey to honour the centenary of Mikis Theodorakis’s birth. The first concert took place on the island of Chios two days earlier.

At the event, Nikos Sofianos, a member of the PB of the CC of the KKE, and Kemal Okuyan, GS of the CC of TKP, spoke about the significant work of Mikis Theodorakis, which was inextricably linked to the struggles for social liberation, the friendship among the peoples and their struggles today, the Palestinian people who continue to shed their blood and the future that the peoples can bring about by believing in their own strength.

The events of the 51st festival of KNE – “Odigitis”, which had previously taken place in many cities across the country, culminated in Athens with a huge political rally. Dimitris Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE was the main speaker.

For four days, tens of thousands of people visited the cultural and political events at the festival, where more than 400 artists performed and discussions were held on important issues and developments. Visitors to the festival could communicate directly with the more than 30 Communist Youth and Anti-imperialist Organizations present at the International City. There were also exhibitions, bookshops, and areas dedicated to children's activities. Thousands of KNE and KKE members worked to set up the festival, safeguard it and ensure it ran smoothly.

Thousands of strikers across Greece sent a strong message of condemnation against the government’s new anti-labour bill proposing 13-hour workdays, by participating in a major 24-hour nationwide strike, holding strike rallies and taking part in dynamic marches.

A delegation from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), led by its General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas, attended the strike rally in Athens. In his statements to the media, D. Koutsoumbas emphasized the following:

“Today’s struggle of the working class for shorter working hours is a great one. It will not end with the withdrawal of the government’s shameful bill for 13-hour working days, nor with it being thrown in the dustbin. The discussion has already begun in the workplaces. The struggle has begun for how we should live in the 21st century, i.e. the era of great scientific discoveries and Artificial Intelligence. We need fewer working hours: 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 35 hours a week in total. We need more free time for culture and sports. Parents need time to see their children and participate in public life, to meet their contemporary popular needs. We need a new society. Today’s battle is only the beginning.”

Thousands of people, including many young people, honoured the 52^nd anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising throughout the country over three days, through various events and wreath laying ceremonies, with the historic campus on Patission Street at the centre of the commemorations.

There was a large turnout at the KNE exhibition at the Polytechnic School, which connected visitors with the historical context of that era. It began by presenting the reasons why the military dictatorship was imposed, the economic measures taken by the junta in favour of capital and the deepening of its relationship with the US and NATO, at a time when the police and military apparatus of the bourgeois state stood against the people. It then highlighted the actions of the KKE and KNE, the conditions they had to face, the role of the illegal press, the brutality of the mechanisms of repression and the unyielding stance of the imprisoned communists. The exhibition continued into 1973, a time of resurgence of the workers’ and people’s struggles and the Polytechnic uprising, presenting a chronicle of the three days and conveying the message that "The flame of November will live forever. Organization and struggle for the overthrow. Education, work, peace, freedom".

Tonight, we commemorate the 108th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution with militant optimism and unwavering confidence in the inexhaustible strength of the working class and the peoples of the world.

We salute this event of world-historical significance, which changed the course of humanity, indelibly marked the 20th century and heralded the beginning of the end of capitalist barbarity and exploitative systems, as well as the dawn of a new society, socialism–communism.

On Sunday 30 November, Greek farmers began blocking major highways with tractors and other agricultural machinery. The government responded with repression, using chemicals, riot police and arrests to suppress the farmers’ mobilization, but these efforts proved futile in the face of the toiling farmers’ mass participation, determination and organized disobedience.

The farmers are fighting for their future, to prevent their eventual extermination and to secure the chance to earn a decent living from their work in their villages.

This past week marked the holding of the 39th Congress of ADEDY, the third-level trade union organization of the public sector, that is, the confederation that unites all public sector unions, such as those of teachers, professors, health professionals, doctors, cleaning and service workers in local government (municipalities and regions), public universities, various ministries, and others.

It should be noted that two confederations exists in Greece: one for public sector unions (ADEDY) and one for private sector unions (GSEE), which include all unions, regardless of the political beliefs of the workers who make them up. However, within the unions, both in the public and private sectors, there is fierce ideological and political conflict over the direction of each union, the positions it takes, and the demands it makes. This conflict is also reflected in the votes for the election of union leaders. 

On 16 December 2025, thousands of workers in Athens and dozens of other cities across Greece took part in mass demonstrations against yet another anti-popular state budget.

The Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (ADEDY), where the trade union list supported by the KKE recently emerged as the leading force, had called a nationwide strike, while several Labour Centres had also called strikes in areas where poor farmers, fighting for their survival against monopolies and the anti-popular Common Agricultural Policy of the EU, have mobilized. In various regions, farmers also participated in the workers’ mobilizations.