The past year was a difficult one for Greece and the entire world, with the coronavirus pandemic suspending normalcy in life, Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said on Friday in her New Year’s message.
US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt posted a video on Twitter on Friday for the end of a year that also marked 200 years of Greek-American friendship and the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence.
Greece’s tax-related platforms are being shut down over the New Year’s holiday for year-end operations, the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) has said.
The new year is the time for Greeks to “take back their lives and dignity,” opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said on Friday, adding that “2022 can and should be the year of big change” and a “new start.”
“The weeks ahead will bring waves, but we have the power to put the storm behind us and lead the country into calm waters,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in his New Year’s message on Friday.
Turkey will “intensify efforts” for the demilitarization of Greece’s islands and is prepared to challenge their sovereignty if Greece does not demilitarize them, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu indicated in comments on Friday.
The upward swing in new coronavirus cases hit another all-time high on Friday, with the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) confirming 40,560 infections in the 24-hour period from Thursday’s record of 35,580 cases.
Friday’s half-session at Athinon Avenue brought the year to an end with gains of 10.43% for the benchmark – a fairly satisfactory result that is mostly attributed to the first half of the year.
The New Year will be getting off to an unseasonably warm start, Greece’s weather service (EMY) reported on Friday, forecasting daytime highs of as much as 18 degrees Celsius on the mainland and 19 Celsius on the islands.
A big basement area at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, northern Greece, was vacated by police on Friday after 34 years of serving as a squat and hideout for self-styled anarchists.