April 24, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Chaos on the outskirts of cities

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are eager to leave the cities to spend Easter in the villages or visit the graves of their loved ones. The police are trying to prevent this, but they also lose heart.

Like us reported Earlier, on Thursday evening, since the beginning of Holy Week, more than 33,000 vehicles were able to break through the checkpoints set up by the police at the toll booths on the highways from Athens. This endless stream intensified many times on Good Friday …

Hundreds of police officers thrown into this work literally fall from their feet from fatigue, but they are unable to check all those leaving. Besides, the cops are people too …

Friday, 14:10, the air temperature is 29 degrees, the policeman in front of the TV cameras with unprecedented zeal checked 30 cars and let them all through: “They all had documents indicating the reason for the trip for health reasons,” he explains. Some people have the courage to tell us that they are going to prune trees. We also heard that “yes, we have no papers, but we do not work and only drive 80 km / h.” The people are going crazy, if we checked everyone, the line would stretch to Athens. “

“Do you know that we will not celebrate Easter? We will check everyone passing by at the payment points. We cannot tolerate this anymore!”, – the policeman says in despair. “I will not celebrate Sunday or Easter Monday,” he says, stopping another car that has just paid the fare.

In addition to highways, mass exodus of the population from cities occurs through small peripheral roads, incl. dirt mountain roads. To avoid a breakthrough, the authorities used helicopters and police drones. However, according to the police, this does not help much, since there are hundreds of “fugitives” per one policeman (and there are more than 10 thousand of them involved in the operation across the country).

Why is this happening?

There are at least 3 reasons.

First, and most importantly, people are tired of quarantine, which has been going on with slight indulgences since the beginning of November, in fact, for 6 months. Therefore, he tries to leave the city in any way.

The second reason is the tradition of spending Easter in the villages at the place of birth, visiting cemeteries where relatives and friends are buried. And if last year people somehow endured it, then this year their patience came to an end.

The third reason is agricultural work. The time has come for caring for gardens, vegetable gardens and other matters that cannot be postponed until a later time. Moreover, the spring has unfolded in full force, and the hot weather has already come.

And one more reason, albeit not as significant as the previous ones, but very important. People see that the country’s leadership, taking advantage of the opportunity and cutting documents, travels to their villas and dachas, spitting on the bans they have set themselves. To avoid traffic jams, they use private helicopters. And feelings of injustice and envy are great strength …

Like us reported Earlier, on Thursday evening, since the beginning of Holy Week, more than 33,000 vehicles were able to break through checkpoints set up by police at toll booths on the highways from Athens. This endless stream intensified many times on Good Friday …

Hundreds of police officers thrown into this work literally fall from their feet from fatigue, but they are unable to check all those leaving. Besides, the cops are people too …

Friday, 14:10, air temperature 29 degrees, a policeman in front of TV cameras with unprecedented zeal checked 30 cars and let them all through: “They all had documents indicating the reason for the trip for health reasons,” he explains. Some people have the courage to tell us that they are going to prune trees. We also heard that “yes, we have no papers, but we do not work and only drive 80 km / h.” The people are going crazy, if we checked everyone, the line would stretch to Athens. “

“Do you know that we will not celebrate Easter? We will check everyone passing by at the payment points. We cannot tolerate this anymore!”, – the policeman says in despair. “I will not celebrate Sunday or Easter Monday,” he says, stopping another car that has just paid the fare.

In addition to highways, mass exodus of the population from cities occurs through small peripheral roads, incl. dirt mountain roads. To avoid a breakthrough, the authorities used helicopters and police drones. However, according to the police, this does not help much, since there are hundreds of “fugitives” per one policeman (and there are more than 10 thousand of them involved in the operation across the country).

Why is this happening?

There are at least 3 reasons.

First, and most importantly, people are tired of quarantine, which has been going on with slight indulgences since the beginning of November, in fact, for 6 months. Therefore, he tries to leave the city in any way.

The second reason is the tradition of spending Easter in the villages at the place of birth, visiting cemeteries where relatives and friends are buried. And if last year people somehow endured it, then this year their patience came to an end.

The third reason is agricultural work. The time has come for caring for gardens, vegetable gardens and other matters that cannot be postponed until a later time. Moreover, the spring has unfolded in full force, and the hot weather has already come.

And one more reason, albeit not as significant as the previous ones, but very important. People see that the country’s leadership, taking advantage of the opportunity and cutting documents, travels to their villas and summer cottages, spitting on the prohibitions set by them. To avoid traffic jams, they use private helicopters. And feelings of injustice and envy are great strength …





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