The new ID cards in Greece expected to be issued in September have fueled conspiracy theories in social media with many people believing that they will have a chip that will locate the owner at any time.
Despite assurances by the government that the new IDs will not have a geolocation system, skeptics see the magnetic strip on the new cards as a fresh attempt by the authorities to control them through technology.
Many Greeks have been forming long queues at police stations throughout the country to renew the existing ID cards, which would be valid for 10 years, before the new type hits circulation.
Last week, three Greek citizens stood at 2 am outside the Kozani police station to renew their old IDs. Since then the number of people queuing up in the northern city has been increasing with each passing day. The turnout is so great that the police station was forced to extend its opening hours.
According to a report by the daily Eleftheros Typos, a bus was hired by a monastery to transport pilgrims who wanted to renew their old IDs to a police station in Thessaloniki.
A police station at Peristeri, west of Athens, announced that citizens who want to renew their old IDs should start queuing by 6 am. “It is very crowded at this time because of the new IDs. If you don’t mind getting a new ID, then you’d better come in September.”
Rallies called in Greece against new ID cards
The “resistance” to the new identities is organized mainly through social networks, where instructions are circulated on many websites on how to avoid the new ID.
Opponents of the new IDs have called for demonstrations kicking off with a rally at Rethymno, Crete on Wednesday. A demo is also planned in Thessaloniki on September 3 followed by Athens a week later.
The new identity cards are the size of a credit card. The Minister of Citizen Protection, Yiannis Oikonomou, characterized them as “the ‘vehicle’ for adapting Greece to the modern world so that we can travel safely and be compatible with our obligations in the EU.”
They have nothing alien, anti-Christian, and demonic, Oikonomou stressed and added that “those who poison people’s minds should know that the world has gone through Enlightenment.”
The introduction of the new IDs will free a large number of police officers from paperwork, government sources say. This will make policing the streets more effective, they add.