Today, March 30, 2020, at the age of 98, the emblematic figure of the resistance against the Nazis, Manolis Glezos, passed away.

Manolis Glezos was born in Apeiranthos, the mountain village of Naxos, on September 9, 1922. He spent his childhood in his village, where he finished primary school. From the mid-1930s his family emigrated to Athens and in 1940 the deceased moved to School of Economics and Business.

As a student, he also pioneered the creation of a resistance group for the liberation of the Dodecanese from the Italians. During the Nazi occupation, he took part in the resistance of the Greek people through the ranks of OKNE, EAM Neon and EPON, resulting in his imprisonment, torture and persecution.

His most daring act was that of the night of the 30th to the 31st of May, 1941, when, together with Apostolos Santa, he climbed the rocks of the Acropolis and from there descended the symbol of Nazism, the flag with the swastika.

Glezos’ liberation followed together with his activism successively through the ranks of the KKE and the EDA, but also his involvement in the journalistic profession, in managerial positions first in “Rizospastis” immediately after his release and a decade later in “Dawn”. He was under trial 28 times for press offenses, and in

the late 1940s he was convicted  with the death sentence twice, albeit he wasn’t executed due to a Greek and international campaign. In 1950 the death

sentences were commuted to life imprisonment and he was finally released on July 16, 1954. In the elections of September 9, 1951, Glezos, although imprisoned, was elected Member of Parliament for Athens with the EDA. 

With the military coup of April 21, Manolis Glezos was arrested along with other political leaders and imprisoned in Goudi, Pikermi, General Security, Gyaro, Partheni Leros, Oropos, from where he was released in 1971. He spent 16 whole years of his life in exile and prison.

He has been active in the post-dictatorship era through the ranks of the EDA and PASOK, on ​​whose ballots he was elected, as a collaborator, Member of Parliament and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the 1980s.

In the 1986 municipal and community elections, he returned to his beloved Apeiranthos, where his fellow villagers elected him mayor and he, for his part, introduced the institution of Direct Democracy.

In the local elections of 2002, he became the leader of the “Active Citizens” coalition for the enlarged Athens-Piraeus Prefecture, which was supported by the Synaspismos and elected a prefectural councilor.

He returned to the central political scene in 2012, when in the double elections of May 6 and June 17 he was elected Member of Parliament with the SYRIZA coalition. With the same party, he was elected MEP in the European elections of May 25, 2014, making German debts to Greece the central issue of his term. 

A typical example of his personality was shown in the summer of 2017 when he gave the wreath to German Ambassador Jens Pletner at the monument to the executed residents of Distomo. His last involvement with active politics was on the ballot of the State of Popular Unity (Epikrateias Laikis Enotitas) in September 2015.

Source: ANA-MNA