Freedom in art and expression is a common assumption, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Gerapetritis speaking to SKAI 100.3 and Pavlos Tsimas regarding the reactions caused by his intervention to take down the pink flag from the Greek consulate in New York .

“Both as a person and as an academic, I support freedom of art and expression, even when it’s sharp and aggressive,” he said and added:

“Here I think the issue has to do with the environment in which the exhibit was presented. I would accept having that particular work in a museum or gallery or at home. But here we are talking about a project posting at the Greek consulate in New York. It is about the hard core of the state and the image of Greece abroad”.

And he continued: “The consulate must carry intact the emblems and symbols of the country and serve its expatriates and have a neutral character. It is not a gallery and a space for an exhibition.”

Emblems and symbols of the country within the hard core operation of the state must be seen intact, he said.

As he said, there are people who cannot accept this. This is important for the state’s neutrality regarding state symbols.
“The logic is that the freedom of art is non-negotiable. But when we talk about the services of the hard core of the state, it must have neutrality regarding the symbols and emblems of the state”.

Finally, he said that “the message about gender-based violence must get through, but here we have emblems of the state at the service of the hard core of the state. We had to have that attitude.”