Greece - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Greek same-sex wedding bill allows couples to dream, at last

WHEN Yolanda Kalantzi and Georgia Ampatzidou fell in love eight years ago, they said the idea of getting married was "science fiction" in deeply conservative Greece, where LGBT+ couples cannot wed or adopt. Now they have a tentative wedding date for spring, tease each other about their ballooning guest list, and are already considering outfits and flowers. The conservative government plans to submit a bill to parliament on Thursday that legalises same-sex civil marriage. The legislation is expected to pass given Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right party majority, and likely support from leftist lawmakers. If it does, it will make…

Jun

2023

By STAMOS PROUSALIS

Greece scours shipwreck site; hundreds feared drowned in boat’s hold

WORLD

RESCUERS scoured the seas off Greece following a shipwreck that killed at least 79 migrants, as hopes of survivors dwindled and fears grew that hundreds more, including children, may have drowned trapped inside the crowded vessel's hold. Reports suggested between 400 and 750 people had packed the fishing boat that capsized and sank early on Wednesday morning in deep waters about 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coastal town of Pylos. Greek authorities said 104 survivors had been brought ashore. As it began to flounder late on Tuesday night, people on the vessel's crowded outer deck repeatedly turned down…

May

2023

By KAROLINA TAGARIS

Burundi-born ex-police officer seeks to be Greece’s first Black lawmaker

NEWS

IN working-class neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Athens, Spiros Richard Hagabimana is going door-to-door in an election campaign that could see him become Greece's first Black lawmaker. It is a remarkable journey for Hagabimana, who just eight years ago was jailed in his native Burundi for refusing to open fire on anti-government protesters as a high-ranking officer of the National Police. It would also be a historic win in a country where migrants rarely hold official posts and where, less than a decade ago, the extreme-right Golden Dawn party was the third-most popular political force on a fiercely anti-immigrant agenda.…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Thousands protest in Athens after Greece’s deadly train crash

WORLD

CLASHES erupted briefly between police and a group of demonstrators in central Athens on the fringes of a protest by thousands of students and railway workers over Greece's deadliest train crash in living memory. A small group of protesters hurled petrol bombs at police, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades. The protesters then disperse to nearby streets. At least 57 people were killed and dozens were injured on Tuesday when a passenger train with more than 350 people on board collided with a freight train on the same track in central Greece. After protests over the past three…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Anger, sorrow in Greece as train crash death toll rises

WORLD

LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS and ALEXANDROS AVRAMIDIS ANGER and sorrow grew in Greece over a devastating train crash that killed dozens of passengers along with crew members near the central city of Larissa in the country's worst rail disaster. Carriages were thrown off the tracks, crushed and engulfed in flames when a high-speed passenger train with more than 350 people on board collided head-on with a freight train on Tuesday. They were on the same track. As more bodies were recovered on Thursday, the number of dead rose to 57, among them university students returning home after a long holiday weekend. Scores were injured.…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Greece train crash kills at least 36, injures scores

WORLD

ALEXANDROS AVRAMIDIS and LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS A Greek passenger train collided head-on with a cargo train late, throwing entire carriages off the tracks and killing at least 36 people, many of them students, in the country's deadliest rail crash in living memory. Officials said the death toll was expected to rise further as temperatures in one carriage rose to 1,300 Celsius after it was engulfed in flames. Passengers described a "nightmarish" crash which shattered their train just before midnight near the central town of Larissa. It was headed to the northern city of Thessaloniki, from the capital Athens, after a long holiday weekend.…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Foreign ministers of more than a dozen countries condemn mass arrests in Cuba

WORLD

THE foreign ministers of the United States and 20 other countries have condemned mass arrests in Cuba and called for full restoration of Internet access in the island nation that has recently been rocked by political unrest. The joint statement was issued by the governments of Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Guatemala, Greece, Honduras, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Korea, and Ukraine, alongside the United States. "Democracies around the world are coming together to support the Cuban people, calling on the Cuban government to respect Cubans' demands for universal human rights,"…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Music banned on Greece’s Mykonos in new COVID-19 restrictions

WORLD

GREECE banned music in restaurants and bars and restricted movement on its popular holiday island of Mykonos on Saturday after a rise in new coronavirus infections there. Known as the party island of the super-rich, Mykonos is one of Greece's most popular destinations, attracting more than a million visitors each summer, among them Hollywood stars, models and world-famous athletes. Following a "worrying" local outbreak, the Civil Protection Ministry said it was banning music on the island around the clock and would only allow movement between 1 a.m to 6 a.m to those going to and from work, or for health…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Police fire teargas as migrants demand to leave Greek island after fire

NEWS

LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS GREEK police fired teargas during a protest by angry migrants left homeless by a blaze at Europe's largest refugee centre, who demanded to leave the island of Lesbos as authorities started building a new encampment for them. More than 12,000 people, most from Africa and Afghanistan, have been sleeping rough since flames swept through the notoriously overcrowded Moria camp earlier this week. Some residents had COVID-19, raising fears the outbreak could spread. Under a hot sun on Saturday, hundreds of migrants, many chanting "Freedom" and "No Camp", gathered as bulldozers cleared ground in preparation for tents to be…