#hardalias

This week's newsletter from AthensLive is out:

* Greece allows banning people with disabilities from public transportation 

* Mini reshuffling of the cabinet

The new year kicked off with a highly discriminatory regulation that allows ‘as an exemption’ for public transportation to deny embarkation to disabled people should those in charge deem it is not safe enough - instead of improving transportation to be accessible to all. There has undoubtedly been some improvement since ancient Sparta times when they were throwing disabled babies in the Kaidas Gorge. 

2024 started with a mini cabinet reshuffle. Our “national” Citizen Protection minister is back in place, while the Health Ministry will be headed by someone who had left too bitter memories from the early memoranda years.  

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One of the most hardcore bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church, Amvrosios, excommunicated the Prime Minister, the Education & Religious Affairs Minister as well as the head of the Civil Protection over the dispute whether the faithful can get infected with the coronavirus through the Holy Communion. Bishop Amvrosios read the severe “punishment”  on the first day churches in Greece opened again after two months of coronavirus lockdown.

After the Sunday Mass was concluded, retired Bishop Amvrosios read the so-called “Great Excommunication” on PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Minister Niki Kerameos and Nikos Hardalias.

While Amvrosios was reading his text, the faithful started leaving the church one after the other, local media reported. The acting bishop who was not present was reportedly disturbed, the local priests said they were not aware of Amvrosios’ intentions.

With a post on his personal blog a few days ago, the former Bishop of Kalavryta and Aigialeia had threatened a few days ago that he will excommunicate Minister Kerameos after she said that the coronavirus is transmitted through the saliva.

“When you see us together again, it will mean, things are very bad,” head of Greek Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias said at the last coronavirus live briefing end on May. Two months later, things seem to be “very bad” indeed and the Health Ministry announced an extraordinary live briefing with the country’s top epidemiologist, professor for Infectious Diseases, Sotitis Tsiodras.

The Tsiodras-Hardalias briefing is scheduled to go on air at 06:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 4. The government resumed a live coronavirus briefing with Hardalias once a week in July.

Tsiodras’ return on TV screens coincides with several media reports that he, as the head of the consulting committee at the Health Ministry, was at odds with the government’s recent handling of the pandemic.

New coronavirus infections have been on a constant rise since July 21, and new spikes in the last few days.

On Saturday, August 1, new cases jumped to 110 from 78 a day earlier, and were followed by 75 on Sunday and 77 on Monday. In these three days tests were positive at 1.14%, 1.26% and 2.20% respectively.

Citizens have relaxed and are crowding in bars and beach bars, at weddings and other social events, while infections among tourist are at two-digits on a daily basis.

Greece’s top epidemiologist and Professor for Infectious Diseases Sotiris Tsiodras and the head of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias visited the Roma settlement under quarantine after at least 20 residents were tested positive n coronavirus.

They both did not use any protection means like masks and gloves and mingled with the crowd in an effort to inform them about the virus, the risks and the social distancing.

They explained the purpose of the quarantine and appealed to “everyone to comply with the measures for the next 14 days in order to protect our grandmothers and grandparents, those who have health issues.”

They urged the people to be patient.

“Stay home and o nothing else,” Hardalias told the crowd.

The speeches were received with mixed feelings. Some among the crowd applauded and some said “We are Vlach-Roma”, “We don’t have the virus, we don’t get the virus.”

It was a move of high symbolic and had several recipients. Not only the settlement residents but also the locals in Larissa, central Greece, as well as many media and social media users who lashed out against Roma with racist comments.

Mainstream media sent reported to Roma settlements in Athens and else were and pretended to see for the first time the living conditions of the Roma communities.

When Tsiodras later said during the daily briefing that the number of new confirmed cases was “56”, some news presenters said “56 new cases, that is 36 as 20 are the cases the Romas” in the settlement.

“The Roma are not a threat,” Tsiodras said in his capacity as spokesman of the National Health Organization during the  briefing on Friday afternoon.

In a rare press conference in presence of journalists who were allowed to ask questions about the ongoing fires in Greece, Head of Civil Protection and Deputy Minister for Crisis Management, Nikos Hardalias, justified the operational management of the forest fires burning across the country since August 3.

One more incident of a Greek minister apparently flouting the country’s coronavirus guidelines was recorded on Tuesday, as Civil Protection Deputy Minister for Crisis Management Nikos Hardalias was filmed kissing the hand of a priest without wearing a mask.

The incident was screened live on Greek TV as Hardalias, who on a daily basis calls on all Greeks to observe the rules by not shaking hands, keeping their social distance and wearing face-masks, met officials and locals after the operation to rescue residents from floodwaters in the village of Oxia, near Karditsa.

The latest incident follows criticism in social media about Giorgos Koumoutsakos, the country’s deputy Minister for Migration, who was photographed on the weekend receiving Communion from a common spoon.

Although receiving Holy Communion from a spoon is not banned, authorities are keen to discourage the practice.

Social media users say that the Ministers have double standards. The government blames a lack of compliance on the part of the public is contributing to the rise in Covid-19 cases, but its very own Ministers, supposedly tasked with setting a good example, are seen flouting the rules.