The police in neoliberal Greece: Toward a radical confrontation?

The neoliberal restructuring of Greek society since the 1990s and particularly since the intensification of the process after the implementation of the economic adjustment memoranda and brutal austerity in the 2010s has also entailed a repositioning of the police apparatus in the country’s public life. Organisational and other strategic restructuring of the police has meant that confrontations of the police with protesters and other political “undesirables” has escalated since. This chapter briefly takes stock of the key aspects and manifestations of the repositioning of the police as a tool for repression and key lever in Greece’s neoliberal restructuring, and assesses the political prospects for a modest or radical reform of the police. We argue that in light of our assessment of these developments, Greece is likely to become a major site police repression and abuse in the near future.