Anti-SYRIZA fundamentalism

Constitutional law professor Evangelos Venizelos (third from left) speaks at the event titled 'Are We Staying in Europe? Wiretaps, Rights and the Rule of Law,' at the Goethe Institute in Athens, on January 26.

If you walk into a tiger's cage, a friend quipped, make sure you don't touch the wild cat's whiskers. Put differently, when you challenge a more intelligent person than yourself to a public debate, do not attempt to underestimate their intelligence; you only risk exposing yourself to ridicule.

Some people appeared to shun this simple survival rule when they recently reprimanded Evangelos Venizelos, former deputy prime minister and constitutional expert, for taking part in a recent event titled, "Are We Staying in Europe? Wiretaps, Rights and the Rule of Law," at the Goethe Institute in Athens. Organized by Panteion University, the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR) and the Zero Hour initiative for the protection of democracy and the rule of law, the discussion also involved three more professors of international law: Nikos Alivizatos, Ifigeneia Kamtsidou and Xenophon...

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