SYRIZA made good on its pre-election promises on Friday by abolishing maximum security prisons, repealing a law aggravating the committing of a crime while wearing a hood (except in … robberies) and freeing inmates to home custody when the latter are deemed disabled.

The “softer” law and order stance generated a firestorm of criticism by the opposition parties in Parliament, with the timing of the vote skewed by the fact that a dozen of so “anti-state” militants continued an occupation of Athens university’s administration building and with hundreds of illegal migrants and refugees being smuggled onto Greece’s islands from Turkey on a daily basis.

The opposition charged that citizens’ safety is being threatened, whereas the relevant justice minister, Nikos Paraskevopoulos, merely said the bill moves in a “progressive direction” and harmonizes Greek law in the face of “convictions” for human rights violations by European and international for a, as he claimed.