Language: Greek
Currency: Euro € (EUR)
Calling Code: 30
Greece (Greek Ελλάδα ή Ελλάς, Hellas) is a country
in southeastern Europe on the Mediterranean. Greece is an attractive
travel destination with a unique mix of historical heritage,
impressive nature, idyllic beaches and islands, delicious cuisine
and warm hospitality. Ancient Greece has had a decisive influence on
Western culture, especially in the areas of art, language,
philosophy, politics and sport. The Greek coastal landscape is
particularly varied, as picturesque bays and high mountains are
often in the immediate vicinity. In addition, the traditional Greek
taverns with their hearty food and cozy ambience offer a special
experience.
If you compare the holiday resorts in Greece with
those in Spain, Italy and Croatia, you will notice that the Greek
places are often less well-kept and more chaotic. What travelers
prefer about Greece is the hospitality and the good food. In Greece,
a tourist is sometimes invited by locals to sit at a table in the
kafeneion (coffee house) for conversation and to drink ouzo. This
almost never happens in Spain and Italy. Tourists and locals are
usually much more separated there.
If you want to travel to
Greece for the first time, you can't go wrong with Crete, Corfu or
Rhodes. These islands offer a good mix of beaches, ancient sites and
nightlife.
Party islands are Mykonos, Ios, Paros, Santorini
and also Crete and Rhodes.
Pre-season: From May onwards,
temperatures are already pleasant, but the water is still cold.
Southern Greece is already much warmer than the north at this time.
Post-season: Until the end of September, it is still warm enough
for swimming in all of Greece. From October onwards, southern
Greece, especially Crete, is much more pleasant than the north.
In winter: The usual summer destinations often turn into
deserted places in winter. Restaurants, shops and bars are closed
and nightlife has come to a standstill. In addition, many holiday
apartments that are popular in summer are uncomfortably cold in
winter because they are not sufficiently insulated. Swimming in the
sea is no longer an option anyway, as the water is cold. In fact,
Athens is the only really worthwhile winter destination.
The regions of Greece vary greatly in their geographical location and
landscape. Some regions, such as the islands in the Aegean Sea, have a
distinct Mediterranean climate, while others, such as the mountainous
regions in the north and west of the country, have a more continental
climate. But even the northern regions of Greece are not very far from
the sea. Each region of Greece has its own history and cultural
identity. Politically, Greece is divided into 13 regions (Greek
Periféria).
Attica - the capital region around Athens, rich in
archaeological sites.
Epirus - best beaches and stunning mountain
landscapes.
Ionian Islands - group of islands to which Corfu belongs
Crete - popular bathing island and one of the main attractions in Greece
Central Greece - here are many famous places from Greek history
Northern Aegean - the northern part of the Aegean islands
Eastern
Macedonia and Thrace - located in the north and northeast of Greece
Peloponnese - (Achaia,
Corinthia, Elis,
Arcadia, Argolis,
Messenia, Laconia)
fertile peninsula with many hours of sunshine
Southern Aegean -
located in the southern part of the Aegean
Thessaly - here is the
Olympic Riviera, the Pelion peninsula and the Meteora monasteries.
Western Greece - quiet region in the west of the country
Western
Macedonia - northwestern part of Greece
Central Macedonia -
mountainous region in northern Greece
Islands: Crete, Corfu, Kos, Lesbos, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos
Mainland: Chalkidiki, Peloponnese
Cities: Athens, Thessaloniki
Ancient sites: Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae, Knossos
Nature: Zagori
Monasteries: Meteora, Athos
The largest and most important cities for tourism:
1
Athens (Αθήνα) . The city of Athens is the
capital of Greece and one of the oldest cities in the world. It has a
long history that dates back to ancient times. Athens is known for its
important archaeological sites such as the Acropolis with the Parthenon,
the Ancient Agora, the Theater of Dionysus and the Museum of the Ancient
Agora. The city is also an important economic and cultural hub of Greece
and is home to many museums, theaters, galleries and libraries.
2
Corinth (Κόρινθος) . The city
has a long history and was an important city-state in ancient times,
known for its trade relations and its art and culture. Today, Corinth is
a modern city with a rich cultural heritage and a lively port area.
3 Nafplio
(Ναύπλιο) . Nafplio used to be the first capital of Greece after the
country became independent. Today it is a popular tourist destination,
known for its beautiful old town with cobbled streets and buildings in
the neoclassical style. The city also has an impressive Venetian
fortress, the Palamidi Fortress, which sits on a hill above the city and
offers a magnificent view of the Bay of Nafplio. Another well-known
landmark of the city is the Bourtzi Fortress, a small Venetian fortress
located on an island off the coast of Nafplio. Nafplio is also famous
for its beautiful harbor promenade and its numerous beaches in the area.
4 Patras (Πάτρα) . Third largest city in Greece.
Port in the Peloponnese with ferry service to Italy. Patras has many
historical sites, including the ancient theater, the Odeon, the Roman
amphitheater and the castle. It is located on a hill opposite the city
and offers stunning views of the Bay of Patras. Patras is also known for
its lively cultural and arts scene, with many theaters, museums and
galleries. It also hosts the famous Patras Carnival every year,
considered one of the largest and most impressive carnivals in Europe.
In addition, the city is a major transport hub, making it easy for
visitors to visit other cities in the area, such as Olympia, the ancient
city considered the birthplace of the Olympic Games.
5 Chania
(Χανιά) . Port city and second largest city in Crete. The city is known
for its beautiful old town, which is characterized by Venetian and
Ottoman influences. Chaniá's old town is full of narrow, cobbled streets
and alleys lined with shops, restaurants and cafes. The Venetian
fortress guarding Chaniá's harbor is another well-known landmark in the
city and offers magnificent views of the sea.
6 Heraklion
(Ηράκλειο) . Port city and largest city on Crete with the famous Palace
of Knossos.
7 Volos (Βόλος). Port city in
Thessaly, city of the Argonauts and starting point for exploring Pelion
and the Northern Sporades.
8 Thessaloniki
(Θεσσαλονίκη). Port city in the north and second largest city in the
country with a number of ancient sights and a rich nightlife.
9
Kavala (Καβάλα). Romantic port city in East Macedonia with many sights
and ferry port to the North Aegean Islands.
Athens
Brauron
Daphni
Monastery
Aetolia-Acarnania
Attica
Eleusis
Marathon
Sounion
Lavrio
Marousi
Piraeus
Rafina
Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni
Boeotia
Hosios Loukas
Livadeia
Arachova
Orchomenus
Evvia
Evrytania
Agrafa
Granitsa (Evrytania)
Karpenisi
Phthiotis
Agios Konstantinos
Atalanti
Kamena
Vourla
Phocis
Drama
Heraklion
Chania
Rethymno
Sitia
Ierapetra
Agios Nikolaos
Malia
Archanes
Houdetsi
Frangokastello
Knossos
Psychro
Cave
Samaria
Gorge
Cyclades Islands
Dodecanese
Ionian Islands
Greece is known for its ancient and medieval sites.
1
Delphi (Δελφοί) . Delphi is an ancient
city in Greece famous for its oracle, which is considered one of the
most important religious sites of ancient Greece. According to Greek
mythology, the Oracle of Delphi was founded by the god Apollo and was
known for its predictions and prophecies. Pilgrims and visitors came
from all over Greece to visit the oracle and receive advice.
2
Epidaurus (Επίδαυρος) . Epidaurus
is an ancient city known for its well-preserved ancient theater and its
sanctuary of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing and medicine. The
Theater of Epidaurus is one of the best-preserved ancient theaters in
the world and is still used for performances, especially classical Greek
tragedies. The theater has impressive acoustics, which allow the voices
and sounds on the stage to be carried to the highest seats.
3
Mycenae (Μυκήνες) . A very interesting
ancient site, famous through Homer.
4
Olympia (Ολυμπία) . The place where the Olympic Games originated.
5 Temple of Apollo at Bassae (Ναός Επικούριου Απόλλωνα) . The second
best preserved Greek temple in the motherland (after the Hephaisteion in
Athens).
6 Tiryns (Τίρυνθα) . From
the 3rd millennium BC onwards, Tiryns was one of the most important
centers of Bronze Age Europe.
7 Vergina (Αιγές) . The excavation site
at Vergina is probably identical with the ancient city of Aigai, which
was the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia until 410 BC.
8
Philippi (Φίλιπποι) . Ancient site
on the Via Egnatia, known from the letter of Paul to the Philippians in
the Bible. Place of work of the Apostle Paul.
9
Knossos (Κνωσός) . Ancient Minoan
city on Crete.infoedit
10 Delos (Δήλος) . In ancient times a
flourishing and holy site for the Greeks because of the Apollo sanctuary
there.
11 Heraion of Samos (Ηραίο Σάμου) . is the anciently famous
sanctuary of the Greek goddess Hera ("Heraion") on the island of Samos.
12 Mystras (Μυστράς) . Byzantine
ruined city.
13 Old Town of Corfu (Κέρκυρα) . very worth seeing
medieval old town on the island of Corfu.
14 Medieval Town of Rhodes
(Μεσαιωνική πόλη της Ρόδου) . impressive fortress.
1 Enos National Park (Εθνικός δρυμός Αίνου) . Enos National Park
(also known as Mount Enos) is a nature reserve on the island of
Kefalonia. It is known for its unique flora and fauna, including a
variety of endemic species, such as the Enos pine and the Enos fox. The
park also offers numerous hiking trails and viewpoints from which
visitors can enjoy the stunning scenery.
2 Alonnisos-Northern
Sporades Marine National Park (Θαλάσσιο Πάρκο Αλοννήσου) . The park is
known for its rich marine fauna and flora, including dolphins, monk
seals, sea turtles and a variety of fish species. The park is a popular
destination for divers and snorkelers who want to explore the beauty of
the underwater world.
3 Iti National Park (Εθνικός δρυμός Οίτης) . It
stretches across the mountainous region of Oiti and is known for its
unique flora and fauna, including wolves, lynx, wild boar and numerous
bird species. The park also offers numerous hiking trails from which
visitors can enjoy the stunning scenery.
4 Axios-Loudias-Aliakmonas
Delta National Park (Εθνικό Πάρκο Αξιού - Λουδία - Αλιάκμονα) . Axios
Delta National Park is one of Europe's most important wetlands, with
hundreds of animal and plant species within its borders, including many
rare and protected bird species.
5 Olympos National Park (Εθνικός
Δρυμός Ολύμπου). It is known for its unique flora and fauna, including
rare species such as golden eagles, mouflons and brown bears. The park
offers numerous hiking trails from which visitors can enjoy the stunning
scenery. There are also a variety of attractions in the region.
6
Parnassos National Park (Εθνικός Δρυμός Παρνασσού). It is known for its
rich flora and fauna, including rare species such as the Greek fir tree,
brown bear and long-eared owl. The park offers numerous hiking trails.
7 Parnitha National Park (Εθνικός Δρυμός Πάρνηθας) . It is known for its
rich flora and fauna, including rare species such as golden eagle, wolf
and wild cat. The park offers numerous hiking trails from which visitors
can enjoy the stunning scenery, including dense forests, mountain lakes
and waterfalls. There are also a variety of attractions in the region.
8 Pindus National Park (Εθνικός Δρυμός Πίνδου) . There are no
settlements or facilities within the boundaries of the protected area
and it is virtually deserted. Here you will find hikers who like to be
in untouched nature and do not care about tourist infrastructure.
9
Prespes National Park (Εθνικός Δρυμός Πρεσπών). The area is
characterized by its lakes, wetlands and biodiversity. The park is
important for migratory birds and is home to rare animal and plant
species.
10 Samaria National
Park (Φαράγγι της Σαμαριάς). The Samaria Gorge is one of the tourist
highlights of Crete; up to 4,000 people walk through it every day during
the summer high season. The gorge is lined with vertical rock walls up
to 600m high.
11 Sounio National Park
(Εθνικός δρυμός Σουνίου) . A popular destination for tourists and locals
alike, it offers a great way to explore the natural beauty and cultural
significance of the region.
12 Vikos-Aoos National Park (Εθνικός
Δρυμός Βίκου-Αώου) . The national park is known for its stunning scenery
formed by the rivers Vikos and Aoos winding through deep gorges. The
Vikos Gorge, located within the national park, is one of the deepest
gorges in the world and offers spectacular views of the surrounding
mountains and valleys.
13 Zakynthos Marine National Park (Εθνικό
Θαλάσσιο Πάρκο Ζακύνθου) . The national park's marine reserve is
particularly known for its population of Caretta-Caretta turtles, which
nest here. It is one of the most important breeding grounds for the
endangered turtle species in the Mediterranean.
14 Tzoumerka National
Park . Wild, isolated mountain landscapes with waterfalls, old villages
and old stone bridges.
15 Nestos Delta and Vistonida-Ismarida Lakes
National Park. This area combines the estuary of the Nestos River and
the two lakes Vistonida and Ismarida, and it covers an area of around
35,000 hectares. The combination of river delta, lakes and surrounding
wetlands creates a diverse range of habitats that are home to numerous
plant and animal species. The national park is an important resting
place for migratory birds on their routes between Europe and Africa.
16 Evros Delta National Park (Εθνικό Πάρκο Δέλτα Έβρου). It covers the
estuary of the Evros River (also called Meriç) in the Aegean Sea. The
park is known for its wetlands, lagoons and bird diversity. It serves as
an important resting place for migratory birds on their routes between
Europe and Africa.
Greece is very sparsely populated away from the cities and so you can
still see many scenic natural landscapes that are not influenced by
settlements. Hikes through the lonely mountain landscapes are a special
experience.
17 Zagori (Ζαγόρι) . well-known, very worth seeing
mountain region with traditional villages.
18 Pelion (Πήλιο) . very
worth seeing mountain region with wonderful beaches.
19 Chalkidiki
(Χαλκιδική) . very scenic peninsulas and one of the centers of Greek
beach tourism.
20 Rhodopes (Ροδόπη) . sparsely populated mountain
landscape in the border area between Greece and Bulgaria of particular
natural beauty and with interesting archaeological sites.
21 Mani
Peninsula (Μάνη) . wild landscape with many caves and special fortified
villages on the Peloponnese.infoedit
Untouched mountains of Greece
(Απάτητα Βουνά). lonely, protected mountain landscapes that invite you
to hike. They are something for people who like to enjoy beautiful
landscapes in peace, away from the tourist crowds.
Even if you are not religious, it is worth visiting famous
monasteries, as they are usually located in remote areas in very
beautiful landscapes. Here, the journey can also be the destination.
1 Meteora (Μετέωρα) . world-famous monasteries in breathtaking
landscapes.
2 Athos (Χερσόνησος του Άθω) . Monastic republic with
many monasteries and world cultural heritage. Feature: hospital.
3
Daphni (Μονή Δαφνίου) . One of the most important Byzantine religious
buildings of the 11th century in Greece near Athens and is particularly
known for its mosaics.
4 Hosios Luke (Μονή Οσίου Λουκά Βοιωτίας) .
important Byzantine monastery in central Greece.
5 Nea Moni (Νέα Μονή
Χίου) . important Byzantine monastery on Chios
6 St. John's Monastery
(Μονή του Αγίου Ιωάννου του Θεολόγου) . The monastery on Patmos
dedicated to Saint John was founded on the ruins of an ancient temple to
Artemis. The author of the biblical Revelation of John wrote his
apocalypse here while in exile. The Grotto of St. John is one of the
most important Orthodox shrines. It can be visited near the road from
Skala to Chora.
German, Liechtenstein, Austrian and Swiss citizens require a valid ID card or passport to enter the country. Children also require their own ID document. Greece is part of the Schengen area. Of the transit countries that make sense from Central Europe, however, this only applies to Italy; there are meticulous border controls at the borders with North Macedonia. Bulgaria is an EU member but not a Schengen state; however, border controls between Greece and Bulgaria are carried out jointly.
The most important airports for scheduled flights are Athens Airport
Athens-Eleftherios Venizelos (IATA: ATH) and Thessaloniki Airport (IATA:
SKG) on the mainland.
In addition, there are many airports
designed for holiday traffic, e.g. B. Corfu Airport (IATA: CFU), Crete
with the airports of Heraklion Airport (IATA: HER) and Chaniá Airport
(IATA: CHQ), Kos Airport (IATA: KGS), Rhodes Airport (IATA: RHO), Kavala
Airport (IATA: KVA) and many more.
There are daily flights to
Athens. From Athens Airport, buses and subway lines run to the port of
Piraeus and to the Athens city center (Omónia and Sýntagma Square). The
same goes for the Proastiakos S-Bahn. The bus takes longer, but is much
cheaper.
All Greek cities with an airport are easily accessible
from Athens. In the summer months, there are inexpensive charter flights
from German-speaking countries to Áraxos, Athens, Kalamáta, Kaválla,
Préveza and Thessaloníki, and from Vienna also to Vólos.
There
are daily flights to Thessaloniki from Germany and Austria. Regular
buses connect the airport with the city center and the intercity bus
stations (KTEL) or the train station (journey time approx. 1 hour).
The last remaining cross-border connections from Thessaloniki to
Belgrade and Sofia have been discontinued. Traveling by train through
the Balkans is therefore currently not possible. (As of June 2023)
The only way to get to Greece at least partially by train is to
travel to the Italian ports of Venice, Ancona, Bari or Brindisi.
Depending on the departure and destination, travel times of up to 24
hours are possible (especially for Bari and Brindisi), which is why
using a night train (NJ (nightjet): Vienna - Ancona, Vienna - Rome,
Munich - Ancona, Munich - Rome) or ICN (Intercity notte)) can make
sense. From the ports mentioned above, the ferry runs overnight to
Igoumenitsa, from where buses continue. Alternatively, you can take the
ferry to Patras, from there on towards Athens there is currently only
rail replacement service (connecting trains to Athens run from Kiato),
even if a resumption of train service on the entire route is planned.
Seat reservations from Central Europe are not possible.
After
the state of the Greek railways was described as "desolate", EVU
HellenicTrain, a subsidiary of the Italian railway, resumed regular
train service in mid-March 2023, including on long-disused local railway
lines in the Peloponnese. See the June 2023 timetable. Only a few
long-distance trains and larger train stations are wheelchair
accessible, registration is required at least 48 hours in advance, Tel.
+30 2130 121 121.
Balkan Flexipass
The Balkan Flexipass could
be an inexpensive way to travel through the Balkans. You can travel on
the national railway networks of Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania (only trains operated by
REGIOTRANS), Serbia, the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
Turkey. It is possible to make several train journeys per travel day. It
is valid for 3, 5, 7, 10 or 15 freely selectable days within a month.
The pass is issued as a paper document, for 1st or 2nd class. It is
reduced for young people (under 28) and seniors (60+). 3 days 2nd class
without discount €84, 15 days 2nd class without discount €252 (05/2020)
Long-distance bus lines exist to neighboring countries.
Road connections exist to Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and
Turkey. The once feared Autoput route through former Yugoslavia
(Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia) is now safe and easy to drive on
again (a green insurance card is required). It is more common to travel
by ferry via Italy. When entering the country with your own vehicle, you
must carry your national driving license and vehicle registration
document. The International Green Insurance Card is not required in
Greece, but is recommended, as is additional insurance.
The
motorways in Greece are partly state-owned and partly private. They are
also subject to tolls. The toll is collected at toll stations. These are
sometimes located just a few kilometres apart in the middle of the
motorway, not at the exits like in Italy, for example.
Car ferries connect Trieste, Venice, Ancona, Bari and Brindisi all
year round with Igoumenitsa near the Albanian border and with Patras in
the Peloponnese.
Minoan Lines
Anek Lines
Superfast Ferries
Corfu is served by Ancona, Bari and Brindisi.
The islands of
Kefalonia and Zakynthos can be reached via Kyllini, about 50km south of
Patras in the Peloponnese, several times a day with Ionian Ferries
ships. In summer there are also direct connections from the southern
Italian ports.
The islands of the Aegean are served by various
shipping companies from Piraeus and Rafina. Anyone with an InterRail or
Eurail pass can purchase an additional ticket for around €100 that
allows five or six ferry trips.
An overview of national and
international ferry connections can be found at www.ferries.gr
Ferries can be booked directly with the ferry companies or through the
large number of agents and agencies on the Internet.
Aegean
ferries to Turkish ports
There are regular connections between
several Greek islands and the nearby Turkish mainland, but these are
less frequent outside of the tourist season. The journey times are
rarely more than an hour. “Day return” tickets are therefore often
offered, which are cheaper than normal return tickets. Overview, as of
summer 2019.
In Greece, traffic drives on the right.
The internationally
accepted traffic signs apply.
Fines double if they are not paid
within 10 days.
On expressways, the hard shoulders are generally used
as driving lanes.
The blood alcohol limit is 0.5 ‰. For novice
drivers with a driving license that has been valid for more than two
years and motorcyclists, it is 0.0 ‰.
In addition to a breakdown
triangle, first aid kit and safety vest, it is mandatory to carry a fire
extinguisher in Greece. However, the obligation to carry a fire
extinguisher only applies to vehicles registered in Greece.
The road
conditions are good, but some caution is required: many Greeks like to
cut corners and overtake in places where visibility is limited.
Extremely defensive driving on the far right is advisable. Even on good
roads, you have to be careful: deep potholes often appear unexpectedly,
and construction sites are usually inadequately secured. The road
surface quickly becomes greasy and slippery in the warm months,
especially when it rains. You also always have to expect animals on the
road in rural areas.
Moped/motorcyclist: In Greece, there are
beautiful scenic routes in the mountainous regions. But you always have
to expect sand or stones on the road and drive much more carefully than
in Northern Europe. Herds of animals also often block the road in the
mountains. Motorcyclists need to be careful here, as the sheepdogs will
attack immediately. So it's better not to drive into the herd and weave
your way through the animals, but wait at a sufficient distance until
the path is clear and drive quickly past the herd. Even then the dogs
will attack, but you'll be away quickly.
Unfortunately, accidents are
very common, especially with rented quads and scooters, because they are
often rented by drivers who have little or no experience with them.
It is advisable, especially in remote areas, to have a reasonable
command of the Greek alphabet, as there are not always signs in Latin
letters (as is usual on major roads).
The maps from Travel
Bookstore are highly recommended - it's best to get them directly in
Greece. There are a wide range of resolutions and regions (including
hiking maps).
Speed regulations
Cars: In town = 50 km/h,
country roads = 90 km/h, motorway = 130 km/h.
Trailer: In town = 50
km/h, country roads = 80 km/h, motorway = 80 km/h
Motorcycles: In
town = 40 km/h, country roads = 70 km/h, motorway = 90 km/h.
Motorhomes up to 3.5 t: In town = 50 km/h, country roads = 90 km/h,
motorway = 130 km/h.
Motorhomes over 3.5 t: In town = 40 km/h,
country roads = 80 km/h, motorway = 80 km/h.
The speed limit is often
set differently by signs.
The majority of long-distance traffic is handled by long-distance buses, long-distance buses have always been more important than the railways, many railway lines were closed in order to minimize costs around 2011. The signs of a renaissance for the railways are only very slowly showing here.
The whole of Greece is served by the KTEL buses, which are often
green or white. The bus fleet is usually fast, clean and punctual and,
above all, relatively cheap (100km around €10) as it is subsidized by
the state. The central routes are often served at relatively frequent
intervals (every 1-2 hours), but off-route services are less frequent
(sometimes only 1-2 times a day, especially at weekends). Large luggage
goes down in the hatch and is loaded and unloaded by the driver.
Long-distance bus travel is a little different to what you are used to
in Germany: there are fixed start and destination points (and also rough
routes and stops that are roughly followed), but the route can sometimes
deviate a little from this if passengers want to get off in a small
village a little further away, for example (no exclusively fixed stops,
as is usual in Germany). If you tell the driver in advance, you can get
off anywhere along the route (sometimes this is directly at motorway
exits), and you can also be picked up anywhere on country roads with
hand signals.
Tickets (sometimes small paper tickets with a QR code,
sometimes just simple receipts with the most important information on
them, which you show to the bus driver when you get on) can usually be
bought in the bus stations (also with an EC card), only for short routes
or starting away from a bus station do you buy the ticket from the
driver (there only with cash). Tickets for longer routes are issued with
seat reservations, which must be observed. It is also sometimes possible
to book tickets online, but this is actually only necessary around Greek
holidays. Overview page of the KTEL cooperatives, depending on the start
or destination region, a specific KTEL cooperative is responsible for
the timetable and information on fares. There is often a discount if you
buy a return ticket at the same time.
Important information: be at
the bus station at least 15 minutes beforehand, sometimes the buses
leave a little early. In addition, the destination sign in the window
does not necessarily have to be correct. On the other hand, the
announcements made by the staff at the bus station or the bus driver are
correct; if in doubt, just speak to the bus driver.
Due to the topography, the dominance of the KTEL and the financial crisis, the railway has so far only occupied a marginal position in the transport network (the entire timetable fits on 6 DIN A4 pages...) see here), many areas (including the entire northwest including the ferry port in Igoumenitsa) are not yet or no longer accessible by rail. The only important routes are Athens-Thessaloniki and the Proastiakos suburban railways in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras. However, there are also plans to put routes back into operation (e.g. Athens-Patras), although the date is often unclear and is delayed from time to time. Current information at hellenictrain.gr
The national language is (modern) Greek. English and German are widely spoken, especially in tourist areas. Albanian is also spoken by small groups in regions around Epirus, Attica and the Peloponnese and also by Albanian guest workers. Turkish is spoken by the Muslim minority living on the border with Turkey. It is advisable to have a reasonable command of the Greek alphabet with modern Greek pronunciation if you want to talk to locals in the kafeneios.
In addition to the well-known bathing and water sports activities, Greece also offers very worthwhile hiking areas and religious and archaeological tourism.
In addition to the many islands, especially Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, Kos, the most famous beaches on the mainland are in Chalkidiki, Epirus and the Peloponnese. See nudist beaches in Greece here. The most popular islands for nudism are, for example, Crete, Zakynthos, Rhodes, Gavdos, Antiparos.
The most famous archaeological sites are in Attica (Athens), on the Peloponnese and the islands of Samos, Delos and Crete.
The centers of religious tourism are Mount Athos and the sites that the Apostle Paul visited during his travels, especially Philippi. The Via Egnatia in northern Greece is part of the pilgrimage route to Jerusalem.
The most popular hiking areas are Mount Olympus, the gorges in Crete, the national parks in Epirus and the less well-known Rhodopes.
With its more than 1400 islands, Greece is one of the most attractive
sailing areas in the world. You will find countless secluded bays, cozy
fishing villages with small harbors or lively promenades in the larger
harbor towns for evening entertainment, shopping or having repairs
carried out. There are marinas and moorings everywhere along the coasts,
which are still cheap compared to France, Italy or Croatia. There are
only a few marinas, but there are small city harbors on the islands.
Some of these charge no fees at all or very cheaply. However, they do
not offer any services such as showers, toilets or washing machines.
Water and fuel are available in most harbors, but you have to take care
of them yourself by asking around in the harbor. Electricity connections
are almost never available in the small harbors. The ports are usually
in the center of the towns, from where you can stroll through the alleys
in the evening or enjoy Greek specialties in the restaurants.
The
most popular sailing areas in Greece are: the Ionian Islands, the
Cyclades, the Saronic Islands, the Dodecanese and the Sporades. The
North Aegean Islands are less well known. The distances from island to
island are greater here. However, there are only a few boats on the
move, so it is almost always easy to find anchorages. The Ionian Islands
are ideal for beginners due to the winds and short distances. The best
times to sail the Aegean are spring and autumn, as in July and August
there can be strong Meltemi winds of up to 8 Beaufort, making it only of
interest to experienced skippers.
Business hours: Greece is in the Eurozone. Outside of the tourist
areas and apart from the large supermarkets, a long lunch break from
around 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. is usual. After that, the shops open again
until 8:00 p.m. and sometimes even longer.
Textiles: Greece has a
relatively large textile industry and its fashion is strongly influenced
by Italy, which can be considered a neighboring country due to the
frequent ferry connections. In the cities there are a large number of
small boutiques with relatively low prices.
Handicrafts: Artistic
handicrafts have a tradition that goes back thousands of years, but it
is advisable to leave the beaten tourist track and drive a few
kilometers inland, especially on the islands, to get good goods at good
prices.
Kiosks: In the cities there are newspaper stands (períptero)
on every street corner, where you can buy newspapers and magazines as
well as chilled drinks, sweets, snacks, tobacco products and ice cream.
Markets: In the cities and towns of Greece, farmers' markets (Laikí
Agorá) take place at least once a week. Here, the agricultural products
of the region are offered, as well as everyday items. It has a very
special atmosphere that should not be missed. At the large markets, the
stall owners loudly advertise their products, while at the small markets
in the countryside it is comparatively quiet. You are rarely spoken to
by the sellers. But you can also discover a lot of other things at the
markets. For example, olives. Stalls offer the entire selection of
pickled olives that are available in Greece. No one is offended if you
try them. On the contrary, you want them to if you are really interested
in buying. The stalls that offer nuts are also very nice. Everything
that Greece has to offer in terms of snacks can be bought here. Far from
the bags of chips that you know from the supermarket. Here, too, you are
allowed to try things. Of course, there is also a section that offers
clothing, shoes, fabrics and jewelry. Here you can get the well-known
counterfeits, but also products from Greece. Supermarkets: Large
supermarkets such as Lidl, Sklavenitis, Vasilopolos are mostly located
on the main roads, with a large international range of foodstuffs.
Real estate: Anyone looking for a property to buy or rent throughout the
summer months (particularly popular with pensioners) can find out more
on the Internet, as almost all real estate agents and private
individuals advertise them there: Spitogatos, XE, Vendora.gr, Greece
Properties Gate, Tuvlo.gr.
Greek cuisine is very tasty and hearty. In addition to lamb and goat
dishes, octopus is also often served in Greece. Starters are tzatziki, a
Greek yogurt, and appetizers (e.g. braised cheese).
Eating and
drinking in Greece follows different rules than in Northern Europe. The
locals eat lunch from 2 p.m., because then the shops and offices close
until around 5 p.m., often only eat small snacks or vegetarian dishes
due to the heat, and eat the main meal of the day around 8 p.m. in the
evening.
The Greeks generally attach great importance to the
freshness and taste of the food, so it is advisable to pay attention to
where many locals eat when choosing a restaurant in the tourist areas.
If you have a sensitive stomach, you should be careful with dishes that
have only been warmed up or kept warm, such as moussaka, pastitsio,
saganaki, stifado, etc., especially in tourist areas. Freshly prepared
dishes such as salads or grilled specialties are more advisable. In
general, food in Greece is served lukewarm and is too cold for German
tastes. Larger fish are expensive in tavernas in Greece, so it is
definitely advisable to ask the landlord the price per kilo beforehand!
In summer, you should avoid the "tourist miles" when you go out to
eat. There you will often find purely seasonal tavernas, which are run
by different owners year after year. Instead, you should look in the
town center and the surrounding streets, where you will usually find the
restaurants that the local population prefers. Please note: In Greece,
people rarely go out to eat earlier than 9 or 10 p.m. in summer.
If you want to enjoy Greek cuisine at home, you can find the
corresponding recipes under this link: Greek cuisine. Have fun cooking.
In Greece, people go to the tavern in the evening. This is where they
eat, where news from the area is exchanged, where they gossip and chat.
It is often much louder than what you are used to in Germany. When
Greeks argue in the tavern, it can be about very banal topics. They have
much more temperament. They sit on the street, even if it is loud, as
long as the weather is good. Every Greek town has these taverns.
When you go to these taverns as a traveler away from the tourist
centers, you get a real sense of Greek hospitality. You are immediately
in the middle of it all. If there is something to celebrate, you are
warmly invited. It is not easy to leave, you are part of it. Music is
played, people dance.
There are also discos in the tourist towns,
and of course in the big cities too. But young Greeks also like to go to
the tourist towns at the weekend to take part in the parties there.
Athens and Thessaloniki of course offer every kind of nightlife that
other European cities have. Then there are the well-known party islands
like Mykonos, Ios, etc.
As in other European travel destinations, there are a wide variety of
accommodation options, with good value for money. Away from the busy
tourist centers, you can still find warm hospitality. Depending on the
size and star rating of a hotel, an overnight tax is levied, renamed
"climate tax" in 2025, which can range from €2 to €15 per room. In the
winter season from November to February, only a quarter of the
respective price is charged.
As far as hotels are concerned,
there are often concrete buildings from the 1960s in the tourist areas.
Since the 1980s, hotels have generally been more imaginative and have
adapted to the environment. More expensive hotels have trained staff and
much better service. The Xenía chain was founded in the 1950s; newer
chains such as Chandrís and Divani, which are present in the Athens
area, offer better facilities and service. There are numerous 5-star
hotels with luxurious amenities that are available from €90 per night.
Numerous 3- and 4-star hotels are available from €40 per night.
In addition to pensions, guest rooms or domátia make up a large
proportion of the accommodation options. The rooms are usually located
in a separate, modern, functional building. Compared to hotels in the
same category, you get more for your money. The rooms often have their
own bathroom and a kitchen that guests can use.
On the islands,
studios, apartments and villas are available for cost-conscious
tourists, which offer small kitchenettes or full kitchens and thus the
option of self-catering and enough space for larger families.
On
the Greek mainland, there are eight youth hostels that have been
recognized by the IYHF. Unofficial hostels are usually just as good.
However, youth hostels are often so expensive that a guest room is
cheaper for two people. Hotel guides and hotel review sites are helpful,
as they tell you what the hotel is really like from former guests. The
current photos on these pages are also usually helpful, and there is
also a price comparison where you can choose the cheapest provider.
Categories: The classification of hotels and guest rooms is carried
out by the EOT. A few years ago, the categorization was adapted to
international guidelines and the division from zero to five stars. This
made Greek hotels directly comparable internationally.
There are
campsites in many parts of Greece. You won't find them in the tourist
resorts, but mostly somewhat hidden, for example on small beaches. But
it's always worth looking, because these campsites offer a fairly good
standard without a lot of hustle and bustle. They also invite you to
stay for several days. In fact, many Greeks also have a permanent
campsite here or spend their entire vacation here. You can also drive to
these campsites with a motorhome. Camping is problematic on some of the
islands, and there are no campsites on larger and well-known islands
such as Ródos or Sámos.
There are even nudist hotels on Crete,
Zakynthos, Rhodes, Corfu and Kefalonia.
In Greece, it is very common to send children to tutoring classes.
Many aspiring teachers work in this veritable industry.
Greek
schools only have one long holiday a year and on important days like
Easter they also get a few days off.
Greece is considered to be one of the countries in Europe with the
lowest crime rate. One reason for this is that it is actually true;
crime is a marginal phenomenon here. It has also been imported a little
with tourism, but that is not worth mentioning either. If you follow the
normal instructions that apply to the whole world, you don't have much
to fear here. You can have a great holiday here.
But you
shouldn't think that the police here work in the same way as the police
in German-speaking countries. There is a so-called tourist police force,
which you can only get into as a police officer if you meet special
requirements (for example, a foreign language). But even they often
cannot help you. In addition, the police, especially in rural areas, are
often a little more relaxed about reporting crime. There is no complete
record keeping there, as is usual in Germany.
Snakes: there is a
poisonous snake that lives mainly in the mountains, often on rocky
terrain or in holes in walls, between rocks and the like (horned viper).
It is very poisonous. Therefore, you should make sure you wear good
shoes and clothing if you want to go off-road and generally be careful
around walls in abandoned houses and properties.
Dogs: Feral dogs in
the cities are rarely a threat, but they are not near sheep/goat stables
and free-roaming herds. They are usually very aggressive, especially if
you are on a moped. If you are a tourist and want to explore the area on
a rental scooter or moped, you should never drive into a herd that is
crossing a road.
Drugs: Even if they are easy to obtain and often
offered, the purchase, possession, distribution, import and export of
drugs, even small amounts for personal use, is severely punished in
Greece.
Pepper spray: You should not carry any defense sprays (even
those that are freely available in Germany). Their possession and use is
prohibited in Greece and is punishable by law. The same applies to
weapons of any kind, especially large knives, swords, sabers, etc.
Antique objects: There are also heavy penalties for the illegal
possession of archaeological objects and the attempt to export them. The
purchase and export of antiques is only permitted with a permit from the
Ministry of Culture. Travelers should under no circumstances take stones
from archaeological sites!
No special vaccinations are required to enter Greece. You should take preventative and pain-relieving medication for mosquito bites with you. Since Greek doctors usually prescribe antibiotics for even minor complaints, it is advisable to take home remedies for colds and sore throats with you. Aspirin can be bought in Greece at kiosks and pharmacies. Emergency treatment is free in state hospitals and health centers. There are numerous pharmacies; pharmacies open overnight and on weekends are advertised on a notice on the door or shop window.
Best time to travel: May-September. There is little rainfall then and
the sun shines from a mostly cloudless sky.
High season: mid-July
to the end of August. The week around August 15th is the main travel
season for Greeks. Then it can get uncomfortably crowded everywhere.
Parking spaces are rare and beaches, restaurants and cafes are
overcrowded. If you don't like it that crowded, you should avoid this
time.
If you want to travel to Greece in the late post-season
from mid-October, Crete is the most recommended place, as you can still
swim there now and again in late autumn. However, you should also expect
rainy days there at this time of year.
The pre-season begins in
southern Greece at the beginning of April. The temperatures are already
pleasant then and you can already swim, although the water is still
fresh at around 16 degrees. In northern Greece the bathing season begins
at the beginning of May.
Winters in Greece are comparable to late
April in Germany: there is rarely frost at sea level, but the sea is
cool and you should take a jacket with you for the evenings.
Greece has a largely Mediterranean climate (dry summers and damp, cool
winters). There is sometimes plenty of rain in winter. On the coasts,
however, the weather is mild, with practically no frost. There is almost
no rain in summer, temperatures are high, and very hot in midsummer. The
humidity is always quite high.
In the mountainous areas of
Greece, the climate differs from the coastal regions and the islands.
Summers in the Greek mountains are generally cooler and rainier. The
best time to travel, especially in the Pindus Mountains or the Rhodopes,
is therefore from mid-June to mid-September.
Only wave with fingers together; spread fingers, especially combined
with a pushing away movement, mean "get lost". Pointing gestures are OK.
In many monasteries and churches, tourists are required to cover
themselves below the knees, not to show bare shoulders or a bare
stomach. This applies mainly to women, but also to men in tank tops and
shorts. Sometimes you can borrow a kind of skirt in such a case. It is
best to choose clothing so that you can comfortably visit churches and
monasteries without violating these rules.
Photos: Many Greeks,
especially in rural areas, have a problem with being photographed. So
you should always ask if you can take a photo of someone. Women in
particular do not like free photography. There can be heated arguments
if you hurt a woman's pride. You should pay attention to this and
respect people's demands.
Nudism: Nudity is not that common in Greek
public. However, there are a few official nude beaches on some islands
and many unofficial nudist beaches where nudists have been tolerated for
decades. There are even nudist hotels in Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos and
Kefalonia. Nudism is possible on very isolated beaches anyway, but there
should be no Greek families, houses or tavernas nearby. It is best for
nudists outside of the high season, when many beaches are empty.
Mobile Internet: EU roaming applies in Greece. As a result, domestic
data volume (e.g. Germany) is also counted in Greece. You can also buy a
Greek prepaid number with mobile Internet packages from Cosmote in
Greece. Mobile telecommunications in Greece are similar to those in all
other EU countries. The Greek cell phone network is also well developed
across the country, and it doesn't really cause any problems. Anyone
coming from outside the EU (e.g. Switzerland) should check the roaming
costs beforehand or activate the relevant international options with
their local provider. Many hotels, restaurants and beach bars offer WiFi
hotspots. However, some of them are slow and take some getting used to.
Some cost money, some are included in the price. Usually there are only
areas where you can get WiFi. In a pinch, the Internet café, which has
also become established in Greece and can be found in every larger town,
will do.
Post from Greece to Western Europe takes two to three
days. The days when a postcard from Greece took weeks to arrive are
over.
Domestic calls: Phone cards for public telephones are
available in supermarkets, kiosks and in offices of the telephone
company O.T.E. For local calls, the area code must be dialled. It is not
possible to call abroad from post offices. From German-speaking
countries to Greece: 0030 + area code without zero + subscriber number;
From Greece to Germany: 0049, to Liechtenstein 00423, to Austria 0043,
to Switzerland 0041, then without any zero at the beginning + subscriber
number.
As long as you are on main roads, you won't have any problems with
normal maps. All routes are signposted in two languages. Navigation
systems work well in Greece too.
In Greece, English and often
German are spoken almost everywhere. Many Greeks worked in Germany in
the 1960s and returned to Greece. With English and German you can
actually get by anywhere. You shouldn't be arrogant (as everywhere
else). Then you are guaranteed hospitality.
Whether next to a motorway service station, at the entrance to a Byzantine monastery or next to the museum of an archaeological site: hungry dogs or cats wait for visitors almost everywhere and without fear. We can only speculate about the health of these animals. A little water and a little food helps for the time being, but it doesn't solve the problem. Some Greeks would be in favor of slowly reducing the number of animals by castration once they have been caught.
In Greece, public toilets are not available in every place. In many of these houses and most hotels, you are not supposed to flush used toilet paper down the drain, but throw it in a trash can, as the drainpipes are often too narrow for cost reasons. Squat toilets are also common, especially in public areas.
There are dry cleaners (Stegnokatharistirio) in every city, but rarely laundromats. Greek students prefer to take their dirty laundry to their mothers or they have washing machines in their dormitories. So you usually have to make do with hand washing in the sink if the hotel doesn't offer a laundry service. Many sailors also have this problem, as they almost never find laundromats in the ports and marinas to wash things like bed linen.
The Greeks of modern times call themselves Hellenes (Greek Έλληνες,
Ellines), but they have had many different names throughout history.
Homer (8th century BC) did not use the term "Hellene" in his epics. Even
in classical antiquity, the Hellenes did not attach much importance to
presenting themselves as a unified nation. Instead, their own homeland,
be it a polis or a kingdom, was the focus, with only a few exceptions.
For example, the soldiers who fell at Thermopylae were called Hellenes.
The participants in the Olympic Games were also grouped together as
Hellenes. Perhaps this is why this term later became a synonym for
paganism in the first centuries of Christianity. From late antiquity to
the end of the Middle Ages (1453), the Greeks called themselves Rhōmaioi
(ancient Greek Ῥωμαῖοι "Romans"). A wide range of historical
developments influenced their self-designation. These varying names were
either completely new or had been used previously and had fallen into
oblivion. They were significant in their time and can now be considered
interchangeable, which means that the Greek people are polynomial.
In most European languages and those that have adopted their
names, the name for Greece begins with the letters GR (Greece, Grèce,
Grecia, Griekenland, etc.); the origin of all these names lies in the
Latin term Graecus, which in turn has its origins in the Greek Graikos
(Γραικός), the name of a Boeotian tribe that settled in Italy in the 8th
century BC and by whose name the Hellenes became known in the West.
Homer mentions the Boeotian city of Graia (Γραῖα) in the Iliad;
according to Pausanias, this was the old name of Tanagra. Kyme, a city
south of Rome and northwest of Naples, was founded by Greeks from the
cities of Chalkis and Graea. The term Graeci may have been created as a
collective term for all Hellenes through the contact of the latter with
the Romans.
On the other hand, the Persian and Turkish name for
the Greeks Yunan, as well as that of most other Near Eastern languages,
originally goes back to Old Persian Yauna, which in turn is borrowed
from the Greek Íōnes (Ἴωνες). The name comes from the Greek tribe of the
Ionians, whose cities were conquered by the Persians in the sixth
century BC and whose name, like the name of the Graeci in the West, was
used to refer to the entirety of the Hellenes.
Ancient Greece, which extended beyond the area of the present-day
state to Asia Minor, is referred to as the cradle of Europe,
particularly due to its civilizing achievements in the fields of
philosophy, natural sciences, architecture and sculpture, historiography
and literature. In 146 BC, the area of present-day Greece became a
Roman province, and after the division of the empire in 395 it was part
of the Eastern Roman Empire, from which the Byzantine Empire, dominated
by Greek language and culture, emerged.
After the conquest of
Constantinople by crusaders in the Fourth Crusade (1204), the power of
the Byzantine state was broken, and the area split into successor states
such as the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, the Principality of Achaia and
several others, as well as into several Byzantine-influenced Greek
states, including the Despotate of Epirus in Europe and the Empire of
Nicaea in Asia Minor. Some areas became colonies of the Republic of
Venice, later also of Genoa and the Order of St. John.
With the
reconquest of Constantinople by the Nicaean Emperor Michael VIII in
1261, the Palaiologan dynasty re-established the Byzantine Empire, but
was only able to conquer part of Greece and lost some areas to the
Serbian Empire, which reached its greatest extent under Stefan Uroš IV
Dušan around 1350, as well as all of Asia Minor.
Benefiting from
the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, troops of the Ottoman Empire were
able to conquer most of Greece between 1359 and 1451. With the fall of
Mistras in 1460, the last independent Greek dominion in what is now
Greece was conquered by the Ottomans. In the following centuries, the
Ottomans expanded their state to cover the entire Greek territory with
the exception of the Ionian Islands.
In 1821, the so-called Greek
Revolution took place, the intellectual pioneers of which were a group
around Rigas Velestinlis and the Filiki Eteria. In the Battle of
Navarino in 1827, a European naval force managed to gain the upper hand
over the Ottoman fleet. In 1827, the first Greek government was formed,
which made the island town of Aegina its capital. In 1829, the
government moved to Nafplio in the Peloponnese. Through the London
Protocol of February 3, 1830, recognized by the Ottoman Empire on April
24, Central Greece, the Peloponnese and the Cyclades were declared an
independent state of Greece.
In 1828, Ioannis Kapodistrias was the first head of state of Greece,
which had been liberated from the Ottoman Empire during the Greek War of
Independence. In order to prevent the spark of republicanism from
spreading in Europe, the major European powers established a monarchy in
Greece from outside. England, France and Russia had made this a payment
condition for loans of 472,000 British pounds and 60 million drachmas to
the country, which had been completely over-indebted since 1826. In
1832, the Bavarian Prince Otto, son of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, became
the first king of Greece as Otto I. This only covered a small part of
the current national territory, however. Otto's rule was ended in 1862
by a bloodless uprising. George I was elected as his successor on 30
March 1863 by the Greek National Assembly with the approval of the major
powers. In 1864 the Ionian Islands joined the Greek state, in 1881 the
Ottoman Empire had to cede Thessaly to Greece in accordance with the
decisions of the Berlin Congress of 1881, and Crete declared union with
Greece in 1908, but this was not recognized by Greece until October 1912
and by the great powers in 1913 after the Balkan Wars. Most of the
islands, as well as Epirus in the north and Macedonia (with
Thessaloniki) in the northeast, only went to Greece as a result of the
two Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913. The weakened Ottoman Empire was no
longer able to hold its own against the Greeks, who were allied with
Serbia and, at times, Bulgaria. In 1913 Constantine I became king after
the assassination of his father.
Greece initially remained
neutral in the First World War. After the abdication of King Constantine
I by the Allies in 1917, it entered the war against the Central Powers
and their allies, particularly Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. After
the war, with the approval of the victorious powers, attempts were made
to use the defeat of the Ottoman Empire to bring not only Western
Thrace, which Bulgaria had won, but also Eastern Thrace and the
predominantly Greek-populated area around Smyrna (today's Izmir) under
Greek control. The aim was to implement the Megali Idea ("Great Idea"),
which was concretized as a foreign policy goal by the then Prime
Minister Eleftherios Venizelos with the expression "Greece of two
continents and five seas" (meaning the Aegean Sea, the actual
Mediterranean Sea, the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea, and the Ionian
Sea) - in other words the re-establishment of the Byzantine Empire with
Constantinople as its capital. In 1922, however, the Greco-Turkish War
ended with a clear Greek defeat (“Asia Minor Catastrophe”). In the
Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, a population exchange was agreed: all Greeks
still scattered across large parts of Turkey (with the exception of the
Constantinople Greeks and some island Greeks) had to move to Greece
(around 1.5 million people), in return around 500,000 mostly Turkish
Muslims had to leave Greece, with the exception of the Muslims in
Thrace. The population of Athens multiplied in a very short time.
Since 1922, there have been several military coups, which had begun
with a revolt against King Constantine I. The uprisings ultimately led
to an internal destabilization of the country. In 1924, a referendum
voted to abolish the monarchy. From 1925 to 1926, General Theodoros
Pangalos ruled dictatorially.
During the Second World War,
Greece, under the dictator General Metaxas, rejected an Italian
ultimatum to surrender on October 28, 1940 (the day of rejection, "No
Day," is now celebrated as a national holiday alongside March 25, which
commemorates the Greek Revolution, because Metaxas is said to have sent
a telegram to Italy containing only the word Όχι, or no). Greece was
then attacked by Italy, but was able to defeat the numerically superior
Italian troops and push them back far beyond the Albanian border. It was
only when the German Wehrmacht intervened in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria in
April and May 1941 that Greek resistance was broken. Italy, Germany, and
Bulgaria established a harsh occupation regime. The forced export of
almost all Greek production resulted in a positive trade balance with
the German Reich of 71 million Reichsmarks, which was then offset
against extreme occupation costs (renamed "reconstruction costs" at
Hitler's request). Of all occupied countries, Greece had to pay the
highest occupation costs per capita. In order to extract more material
assets from the population, the circulation of banknotes was increased.
Economic collapse was foreseeable and was accepted. The lack of food in
particular led to a famine and an infant mortality rate of 80%. Of 300
children examined in Athens in October 1944, 290 were suffering from
tuberculosis.
The occupying forces repeatedly took brutal,
war-criminal action against the partisan movement, which was soon
gaining strength: in various places, including Kalavrita and Distomo,
the entire village population was murdered by the Wehrmacht or "special
units" in "retaliation" for partisan attacks. The question of
compensation from the German side for these actions is still the subject
of political discussion today. In 1942, the occupying forces introduced
forced labor for Jews. From the beginning of 1943, they were ghettoized,
expropriated and deported mainly to Auschwitz and Treblinka, where they
were immediately murdered. Around 80,000 people fell victim to the
"Final Solution."
The armed resistance came mainly from the
communist-influenced People's Liberation Army ELAS. There were also the
rival republican, later royalist partisans of the EDES, which
collaborated with the Wehrmacht in the fight against the ELAS from the
end of 1943 (purchasing weapons and equipment), but was supported by
Great Britain in the Battle of Athens. At the end of 1944, the EDES
informally disbanded after heavy losses. After military intervention by
Great Britain on December 5, 1944, the ELAS was disarmed and demobilized
in accordance with the Varkiza Agreement of February 12, 1945.
In
total, around 70,000 to 80,000 Greeks were killed in the partisan war or
in reprisals by German, Italian and Bulgarian troops. If you add
together the Second World War and the civil war that followed it, Greece
lost almost 10% of its population.
After the battle in the mountains between EDES and ELAS and the
Battle of Athens, the Second World War in Greece almost immediately
turned into the Greek Civil War. The Greek right broke the Treaty of
Varkiza to disarm the partisans. In some parts of Greece, with the
tolerance of the moderate republican forces, a so-called white terror
developed by the Greek right, which targeted the predominantly (but not
exclusively) communist members of EAM and ELAS. The communist partisans,
who had borne the brunt of the partisan struggle against the occupying
regime of the German Wehrmacht, returned to guerrilla warfare. The main
supporter was Yugoslavia, and to a lesser extent Albania - the Soviet
Union essentially restricted itself to blocking a UN intervention with
its veto. The royalist resistance was supported above all by the
governments of Great Britain and the USA. In the civil war, which was
conducted with extreme harshness by the government, including against
the civilian population (including the use of napalm), the communist
units, which had switched from guerrilla warfare to open front warfare,
were forced to retreat to the northwest after prolonged fighting.
Beforehand, they brought numerous children out of the contested areas,
of which the GDR took in around 1,300. The end of support from
Yugoslavia in 1949 finally sealed the end of their military power.
The reason for the sparse support from the real socialist "brother
states" was an agreement that Stalin had concluded with Churchill in
Moscow in early October 1944 on the division of the Russian-British
spheres of interest in the Balkans, where the Americans were not
militarily present, but the British were, especially in Greece.
Churchill and Stalin had agreed on a ratio of influence of "90% West to
10% East" for Greece; this was later perceived by many Greek communists
as a "Soviet betrayal" because they were merely Stalin's pawns.
In 1930, a council of states formulated that women should have active
and passive suffrage at local and municipal level. In April 1949, a law
was passed that implemented this women's suffrage. The new constitution
of January 1, 1952 explicitly emphasized the right of women to vote and
be elected at national level. Law number 2159, which guaranteed these
rights, was passed by parliament in May 1952. However, women were not
allowed to vote in the November 1952 elections, even though they had
recently been granted the right to vote: the liberal government argued
that it would be difficult to register more than a million women voters
and that either all women should vote or none. A clause was inserted
into the electoral law that blocked women's suffrage until the end of
1952. Universal suffrage for men had been in place since 1864.
Many civil rights and freedoms remained restricted until the 1960s.
Greece joined NATO in 1952 and the Balkan Pact in 1954. With the help of
the Marshall Plan and the high income from foreign tourists, the
country's economy slowly recovered from the 1950s onwards.
After
the Turkish pogroms in 1955, which were directed primarily against the
Greek minority in Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara, around 100,000 Greeks
living in Turkey fled to Greece and other countries. While in 1945
almost 125,000 Orthodox Greeks lived as a minority in Istanbul,[93]
their numbers fell dramatically as a result of the 1955 pogrom. In 1999,
2,500 Greeks still lived in Turkey.
On April 21, 1967, in
response to the expected election victory of the socialist Eniea
Dimokratiki Aristera (Greek: Ενιαία Δημοκρατική Αριστερά ΕΔΑ, Union of
the Democratic Left EDA), which also included numerous members of the
illegal KKE, a group of right-wing extremist officers led by Georgios
Papadopoulos seized power in the so-called Colonels' Coup and
established a military dictatorship. Under the military dictatorship, a
Eurocommunist wing split off from the KKE under the name "KKE-Inland",
which was intended to suggest that the rump KKE, and thus "KKE-Abroad",
was controlled by Moscow. Today, the only party left in this form is the
KKE, which continues to see itself as a Marxist-Leninist party, while
the SY.RIZ.A, a successor to Eurocommunism, is represented in parliament
as an alliance of small left-wing parties. After mass arrests, numerous
opposition figures, especially left-wing ones, were imprisoned,
tortured, murdered or driven into exile, including the composer Mikis
Theodorakis. The junta was decisively weakened on 17 November 1973 by
the student uprising in the Athens Polytechnic, which was brutally
suppressed with the use of tanks and discredited the regime internally
and externally. The failure of the junta's attempt to unite with the
Republic of Cyprus and the invasion of Turkish troops there in 1974
finally led to the collapse of the military dictatorship and the return
to democracy under Konstantin Karamanlis. In a referendum, the
republican form of government was clearly preferred to the
reintroduction of the monarchy. The country's new constitution was
adopted in June 1975. Despite its foreign policy orientation towards the
West, Greece was excluded from NATO's military organization from 1974 to
1980.
An association agreement with the EEC had already existed since 1961,
but due to the interim junta, the actual accession negotiations did not
begin until July 27, 1976, so that Greece was admitted to the EEC as the
10th member on January 1, 1981. The country benefited from economic and
structural aid, but in return had to drop high import tariffs that had
previously protected domestic producers from foreign competition.
The collapse of Yugoslavia also had economic consequences for
Greece, especially since until then the transit route through the
Balkans (“Autoput”) for goods and passenger traffic had represented the
country’s umbilical cord to the rest of Europe. Consequently, Greece
opposed early recognition of the republics striving for independence,
but was unable to prevail with its position. There were also fears of a
conflagration of political and military conflicts that would also have
consequences for Greece, such as refugee flows. Furthermore, a name
dispute was looming with the neighboring Yugoslav republic, which laid
claim to the name Macedonia. In 1945, post-war Yugoslavia declared the
areas of southern Serbia, which were predominantly inhabited by Slavic
Macedonians, to be the People's Republic of Macedonia (later: Socialist
Republic of Macedonia). The independence of this federal state under the
name Macedonia was seen as a provocation by Greece, as it feared
territorial claims on the Greek province of the same name. Greece
imposed a trade embargo on the country, which was later lifted. On
February 12, 2019, Macedonia changed its name to North Macedonia. Greece
is now by far the most important investor in the Republic of North
Macedonia.
The short term of office of the Nea Dimokratia under
Konstantinos Mitsotakis was followed by another PASOK government under
Andreas Papandreou, which had come to a standstill due to the latter's
poor health. The lawyer Kostas Simitis took over the party chairmanship
and the office of Prime Minister and initiated a departure from the
traditional socialist policies of his predecessor. Foreign policy was no
longer characterized by a special role for Greece, but by a strong
European character. Numerous reforms were carried out domestically:
The Kapodistrias Plan reorganized the local government system and
strengthened the importance of the regions,
large state-run companies
were privatized.
Investments in the country's infrastructure
The policy of European orientation was essentially continued by the Nea
Dimokratia government under Kostas Karamanlis, but did not provide any
impetus of its own. After two election periods, a change of government
took place. Under the new Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou of PASOK,
the country's excessive indebtedness became apparent and led to a rapid
loss of creditworthiness on the international markets, as a result of
which the country ran into payment difficulties.
To deal with
this, the EU financial expert Loukas Papadimos was appointed Prime
Minister. Antonis Samaras of Nea Dimokratia emerged victorious from the
new elections and formed a coalition government with PASOK, but the
left-wing opposition also gained votes.
In the parliamentary
elections on January 25, 2015, the left-wing party SYRIZA won 149 of 300
seats. Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as Prime Minister of Greece on
January 26, 2015. After winning the early parliamentary elections in
September 2015, Alexis Tsipras was able to form a government again.
In 2015, flight and migration across the Mediterranean and the
Balkan route culminated in a refugee crisis in Europe in 2015/2016,
which particularly affected Greece and made headlines, among other
things, because of the miserable conditions in the Moria refugee camp.
Since 2015 at the latest, the Greek islands, as well as the Greek
mainland, have been transit countries for migrants from the Near and
Middle East and partly from Africa moving to Europe.
Greece was
also affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020.
Greece is located on the eastern Mediterranean in southern Europe and
is geographically made up of the Greek mainland at the southern end of
the Balkans, the Peloponnese peninsula, which was separated from the
mainland by the construction of the Corinth Canal (inaugurated in 1893),
and numerous islands, which are mainly in the Aegean, Ionian and Libyan
Seas. The political border to the north is formed by the states of
Albania (300 km), North Macedonia (234 or 246 km) and Bulgaria (475 km)
and in the east by Turkey (192 km). A natural border is formed by the
Ionian Sea in the west of the country with the Italian peninsula and
Sicily and the Libyan Sea in the extreme south with the African
continent. The island of Gavdos in the Libyan Sea is the southernmost
point of the country and is also geographically considered the
southernmost point in Europe.
The country has a total area of
131,957 km²: 106,915 km² are on the mainland, 25,042 km² (almost 19%)
are spread over 3,054 islands, 87 of which are inhabited. Due to its
wealth of islands, Greece has a remarkable coastline of 13,676 km, of
which around 4,000 km are on the Greek mainland. The sometimes quite
large distances within the country represent another geographical
feature in relation to its relatively small total area. For example, the
air distance between the island of Othoni near Corfu and the island of
Kastelorizo in the extreme southeast of Greece is 983 km. The
country's smallest geographical extent - less than 550 km as the crow
flies - is in an east-west direction.
Despite its strong maritime
character, Greece has a mountainous share of 77.9% and is therefore
classified as a mountainous country. The country's central mountains and
ranges are the Pindos Mountains, the Olympus-Ossa-Pelion mountain range
and the Rhodope Mountains on the Greek mainland, the Taygetos Mountains
on the Peloponnese peninsula and, in addition, the Ida and Psiloritis
Mountains on the island of Crete. The highest elevation in the country
is the Mytikas (2917 m) in the Olympus mountain range. Larger
economically viable plains are sparse and are mainly located in the
regions of Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace.
Larger rivers that carry water all year round are mainly found in the
north of the Greek mainland, where they are used to irrigate the fertile
valleys and, to a lesser extent, for energy production. These include
the Pinios, Axios, Strymonas, Nestos and Evros. In the south of Greece,
most rivers only carry water seasonally, but can turn into raging
torrents in the rainy season. The Kifisos flows through Attica. The
current border river Evros was once used for inland shipping. The north
of Greece lies in the Blue Heart of Europe.
The Greek lake
landscape is little known and consists of about half natural lakes and
more recent reservoirs. Lake Trichonida in Aetolia-Acarnania has a
surface area of 96 km² and a depth of 57 m, making it one of the three
largest natural lakes in Greece. The surrounding eucalyptus and olive
groves are home to over 140 species of birds, and the lake itself is
home to some rare species of fish. Also in Aetolia-Acarnania is the 92
km² Kremasta reservoir, which is mainly fed by the Acheloos.
Greece has a predominantly Mediterranean climate with mild, humid
winters and hot, dry summers. On the coast, winter is very mild and rain
is frequent; snow falls rarely. Summers are relatively hot and there are
only occasional summer thunderstorms. The continental European heat
record of 48 °C was measured in Greece in 1977.
Inland, it is
significantly cooler, especially in winter, and there are frequent night
frosts and sometimes heavy snowfalls. Spring is short, but spoils you
with "a firework display of lavender and anemones, poppies and
chamomile." In summer, it is hot and dry, similar to the coast. Annual
rainfall varies between 350 and 1500 mm. Precipitation decreases from
west to east and from north to south. Nevertheless, the mountains on
Crete and the Peloponnese also receive rainfall of over 1000 mm. The
islands in the east of the Aegean are significantly wetter than the
islands in the middle of the Aegean. The driest areas are around Athens,
but also Corinth and the southern Sporades with rainfall of 350-450 mm.
It is striking that in the north of Greece, even in the summer months of
June to August, low rainfall can be expected more regularly. Evaporation
is significantly higher than precipitation throughout the year. The many
islands and the high mountains cause a wide variation in precipitation
and temperature. Kymi on the east side of the island of Euboea is on the
windward side and receives twice as much precipitation as Chalkida on
the leeward side. Since Greece is very mountainous, winter sports are
certainly possible; there are 19 winter sports areas of varying sizes. A
small part in the northwest of the mainland is in the temperate climate
zone.
Flora and fauna are culturally closely linked to ancient myths, but
less often to the main deities. Chloris was the goddess of flowers who
made plants sprout for Hera, nymphs were responsible for the life of
plants. The shepherd god Pan was also considered the god of the forest
and nature. In Greek mythology, gods often take the form of natural
phenomena or animals. The prefix bio- comes from the Greek word bios for
life.
Forests were already being cleared in ancient times. The
wood was used for cooking, heating, as timber or for shipbuilding; the
cleared areas were used as arable land or pasture. In 2005, there were
3,752,000 hectares of forest and 2,780,000 hectares of other wooded
areas. Around 80% of forest is state-owned. Where agriculture no longer
takes place, sclerophyll plants grow (Erica, strawberry tree, laurel,
carob tree), and due to the mountainous structure, many slopes have been
bare by soil erosion. Despite this, Greece is one of the most
species-rich countries in Europe and in terms of the variety of
medicinal plants it is only surpassed by Madagascar. This is due to the
numerous islands and remote valleys. In total, Natura 2000 lists 241
habitats of community importance (SCI) and 202 special protection zones
(SPA). Of the 5500-6000 plant species and subspecies in Greece, 20% are
endemic, and the high number of species also includes an above-average
proportion of medicinal plants. They once formed the basis for a
distinctive folk medicine, but also for the Asclepiads. The majority of
the vegetation is made up of evergreen plants (broad-leaved,
sclerophyllus (sclerophyllus)).
The trees include the culturally
and economically important olive tree, as well as pines, Aleppo pines,
cypresses, fruit trees and, in coastal regions, palm trees. Chestnuts,
elms and oaks can be found above an altitude of 1000 m, black pines and
Apollo firs up to 2000 m, and alpine meadows above the tree line. The
Kefalonian fir is one of the endemic trees.
The country is so
rich in species due to the large climatic differences between the
mountains and the coasts, as well as the mild climate. A large
proportion of the very small habitats are difficult to access and are
therefore protected from human influences such as settlement or tourism.
There are over 900 animal species, including geckos, lizards (e.g. green
lizards), the Greek tortoise, and in the mountains also deer, wild boars
and foxes, and occasionally wolves and bears. The fauna of the islands
differs considerably from that of the mainland. Regionally, there are,
for example, squirrels and squirrels. For example, there is the
loggerhead turtle on Zakynthos and the Cretan wild goat on Crete, one of
the endemic species. The rare Russian bear butterfly can be found in the
Valley of the Butterflies on Rhodes. Lagoons and wetlands lead to a
wealth of bird species.
The native flora and fauna are protected
in ten national parks and two marine national parks. Greece has parts of
the Green Belt of Europe.
The Greek term for hunter (Kynigós) is
derived from the ancient Greek word Kyôn (Gen. Kynós) for dog. Even in
ancient times there were a large number of dogs in Greece. Xenophon
wrote Kynegetikós (Book of Hunting), which describes the abilities and
benefits of dogs, especially for hunting. There are only a few Greek dog
breeds, for example the Hellinikos Ichnilatis and the Kritikos
Lagonikos.
Between 1955 and 1970, Greece had the highest film production in the
world relative to the number of inhabitants, averaging over 100 per
year. The most important film company was Finos Film, whose comedies and
tragedies document a life of poverty in a cheerful way and are
reminiscent of the Italian films of that time. To this day, these films
are highly regarded and are usually shown on television in the early
evening.
The first two films to attract international attention
were Stella in 1955, directed by Michael Cacoyannis, and The Ogre of
Athens in 1956, directed by Nikos Koundouros. From the 1960s onwards,
there was an increasing number of productions of the New Greek Cinema,
an experimental movement. After the collapse of the junta dictatorship
in 1974, the "New Greek Cinema" flourished. Many films belonging to this
movement were shot illegally, either in whole or in part, during the
dictatorship. They were mostly political films that were smuggled
abroad, such as the 1973 film Megara by Maniatis and Tsemperopoulos,
which focuses on the resistance of the farmers in Megara against the
expropriation of their land by a major banker. Other important films of
the "New Greek Cinema" are For a Unimportant Reason, shot in 1974, and
The Traveling Actors, shot in 1975, by Theo Angelopoulos. The latter is
also the first film of the "New Greek Cinema" to be a commercial
success.
The 1964 film Alexis Zorbas played an important role in
the country's reception in the 1960s. The Greek-French film Z by
Constantin Costa-Gavras (1969), which criticized the junta, was
politically significant. The work of director Theodoros Angelopoulos is
also French-inspired. The subject of the Greek diaspora was addressed in
several films by director George Pan Cosmatos, actor Telly Savalas, and
above all by director Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding). Giorgos
Lanthimos is considered the most important Greek film artist of the 21st
century.
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has been
held since 1960 and is the most important in the country. In 1977,
associations of directors and film professionals organized a
counter-festival in protest against a series of changes made by the
responsible ministry, such as the selection criteria for the critics'
committee. However, this "independent festival" was not able to prevail
in the long term.
Greek art is understood primarily to mean ancient sculpture, and sometimes also vase painting. Works of art such as the early classical Charioteer of Delphi, the Nike of Samothrace, but even more so the Hellenistic Venus de Milo, the Laocoon group and the group of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros have acquired archetypal symbolic character. Ancient art was replaced by Byzantine art, and the painter El Greco (1541–1614) came from the sacred art of the Cretan school. The 19th century was characterized by academic art and interacted with the Munich school. Famous Greek sculptors of the 20th century include Jannis Kounellis, Joannis Avramidis, Aris Kalaizis and Christos Kapralos. Numerous Greek artists have their studios on the island of Andros, and the summer there is particularly marked by numerous exhibitions. Patrons of the arts are often shipowners, such as Stavros Niarchos in the past or George Economou today. The art collector Dakis Joannou and his DESTE foundation are considered the most important supporters of the work of Jeff Koons, and George Costakis had amassed a large collection of Russian Constructivism under difficult circumstances. Iris Clert, Tériade and Christian Zervos promoted the Parisian art scene.
There are many examples of classical architecture in Greece.
Buildings such as the Parthenon or the Epidaurus Theatre give a good
impression of the quality of ancient architecture. These became the
model for classicism in the 19th century, which was of great importance
in Greece. Architects such as Theophil Hansen and Ernst Ziller shaped
the cities with large public buildings, especially the architecture of
Athens. An exception is the building of the Athens Eye Clinic by
Theophil Hansen, which follows a Byzantine style and thus marked the
beginning of its partial revival. Thessaloniki in particular, Mount
Athos and other monasteries, the Peloponnese (Mystras), but also Athens
and the surrounding area (e.g. Dafni Monastery, Kapnikarea Church in
Athens) provide numerous outstanding examples of the medieval Greek
building tradition.
Greek modernism is considered to be one of
the earliest in Europe. When Patroklos Karantinos, a student of Auguste
Perret, organized the CIAM Congress in Athens in 1933, Greece had a
significant number of examples of functionalist modernism. The Athens
Charter adopted here became a beacon of modernism. In the late 1930s
there were also restorative tendencies (e.g. the construction of the
Bank of Greece and the Crown Prince's Palace), but these did not develop
a role model function.
While Walter Gropius's building of the
American embassy and Eero Saarinen's west terminal of the old Athens
airport subtly draw on proportions from antiquity, hotel buildings such
as the Hilton in Athens by Spyros Staikos, 1963, and the Porto Carras on
the Chalkidiki peninsula by Walter Gropius (completed posthumously in
1973) are clearly influenced by the International Style. One exception
are the numerous tourist buildings of the state building program Xenia
in the 1960s under the leadership of the Greek architect Aris
Konstantinidis. These modern buildings are embedded in the landscape and
combine industrialized construction with local building materials and
traditions. They are considered an early example of critical
regionalism.
The 2004 Olympic Games brought an urban development
impulse to Athens and Attica, especially the sports facilities and
bridges designed by the architect Santiago Calatrava.
The
architecture of the Cyclades is characterized by cubic forms, whose blue
and white, nested houses and churches have become the trademark of
Greece. Also of regional importance are old towns with a Frankish, late
Byzantine or Ottoman influence. The Ionian Islands are Venetian in
character, and on Crete the Kamara house represents a traditional
building form. Important Gothic buildings can only be found in the
Dodecanese, especially the old town of Rhodes.
In the context of the ancient Olympic Games, the Olympic movement
found many supporters in Greece from the beginning, so that Athens
became the first host city in 1896, followed ten years later by the
Olympic Intermediate Games as an anniversary event. Since 1936, the
Olympic flame has been lit in Olympia and brought to the host city in a
torch relay. In 2004, the Summer Olympics were held in Athens for the
third time.
Special Olympics Hellas was founded in 1988 and has
taken part in the Special Olympics World Games several times.
In
addition to the marathon, which according to the marathon legend goes
back to the messenger Pheidippides in the 19th century and initiated
many marathons, there is also the much less well-known Spartathlon,
which also goes back to an ancient run by Pheidippides. This has been
held regularly since 1983 and is held on the 245.3 kilometers from
Athens to Sparta.
Popular spectator sports in Greece are
basketball and football. The latter has strengthened its role by winning
the 2004 European Championship. Other popular sports are volleyball and
water polo.
In motorsport, the Acropolis Rally is part of the
annual World Rally Championship calendar.
As Greece is a
mountainous country, there are also winter sports. There are 24 ski
resorts in Greece, which have a total of 197 kilometres of slopes and
are served by 122 ski lifts. Ice rinks, on the other hand, are only
available through private financing and are without exception not
Olympic-sized; figure skating and ice hockey are played on them. The
Peace and Friendship Stadium in Piraeus was designed for mixed use,
including an ice surface, but this function has not been used since
1991.
According to Article 4, Paragraph 7 of the Greek Constitution, "noble titles or rank shall neither be awarded nor recognized to Greek citizens (...)". However, noble titles are still mentioned in connection with historical figures and people from abroad.
In 2020, 78 percent of Greek residents used the Internet. As early as 2004, magazines generated higher gross advertising revenues than television stations for the first time - now they account for around 42 percent of all advertising budgets (978 million euros), significantly more than TV and newspapers. The heavily indebted publishing industry is being consolidated by foreign investors.
Greece had 10.4 million inhabitants in 2022. The population fell by 1.4%. A death surplus contributed to the population decline (birth rate: 7.3 per 1000 inhabitants vs. death rate: 13.4 per 1000 inhabitants). The number of births per woman was statistically 1.4 in 2022, compared to 1.5 in the European Union. The life expectancy of the inhabitants of Greece from birth was 80.6 years in 2022 (women: 83.3, men: 78.1). The median age of the population in 2021 was 44.7 years. In 2023, 13.6 percent of the population was under 15 years old, while the proportion of people over 64 was 23.1 percent of the population.
As a maritime nation and a country with a large coastline, Greece has
always been both a country of emigration and a destination for
immigrants. In addition to the Christian Orthodox, Greek-speaking
majority population, there are some religious and linguistic minorities
and immigrant groups. Since Greece does not record such population
groups statistically, all information on the number of their members is
based on estimates and can vary greatly depending on the political
standpoint. The approximately 500,000 Albanians form a minority that is
particularly economically important, and their numbers have fallen
significantly since the beginning of the financial crisis, as many
Albanian migrant workers are returning to Albania. The newly immigrated
Albanians must be distinguished from the Arvanites, who are also of
Albanian descent and who came to Greece centuries ago or whose
settlement areas were integrated into the modern Greek state and are now
largely assimilated. It is estimated that up to 1.6 million Greeks have
Arvanite ancestors, but this is highly controversial and cannot be
proven.
Since the 1990s, Greece has developed from a country of
emigration to a country of immigration. The immigrants come from
countries with a Greek diaspora (such as the former CIS states), from
southeastern European nations (especially the neighboring countries), as
well as from North Africa and Asia.
The largest immigrant groups
residing in Greece, according to data from the 2001 census (Greek and
naturalized immigrants are not included), were:
Albanians (438,036)
Bulgarians (35,104)
Georgians (22,875)
Romanians (21,994)
Americans (18,140)
Russians (17,535)
Cyprus (17,426)
Ukrainians
(13,616)
British (13,196)
Poles (12,831)
Germans (11,806)
Pakistanis (11,130)
Chinese (10,000)
In addition, an estimated
300,000 illegal immigrants live in the country, including people from
Afghanistan, Iraq and the Maghreb; In December 2010, it was announced
that Greece wanted to build a kind of border fence on the part of the
border with Turkey that is not bordered by the river or the sea in order
to limit further illegal border crossings. In 2015, the number of
illegal immigration by boat increased; the island of Lesbos, which is
only nine kilometers from the Turkish western border, is affected, among
others.
97.4% of the Greek population speaks the modern Greek language. Since
the Greek state considers all citizens to be Greek, no information is
collected on linguistic minorities, so the following figures come from
information provided by the Greek state to the European institutions or
their own estimates. Estimates from various minority organizations are
often much higher; how actively the respective language is still spoken
is insufficiently researched.
The dialects of Turkish in the
Balkans (the former Rumelian part of the Ottoman Empire) are divided
into Western Rumelian, which was spoken in Macedonia and the current
successor states of Yugoslavia, and Eastern Rumelian in Eastern Thrace.
The dialect of most Turks in what is now Greek Western Thrace occupies a
special position between the two.
The last official figure on the
spread of Macedonian was published by Greece after the 1951 census,
which showed 41,017 "Slavophone Greeks". However, due to the strong
repression against Macedonian in public, this number is considered to be
far too low. Linguistically, there is a dialect continuum between the
Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects. Terms such as Slavo-Macedonian,
Slavic, Entopia (the latter means something like 'local dialect') and,
before the dispute over the name Macedonia was settled, Macedonian
dialects are used for the language of the minority. Macedonian dialects
are spoken in the area of Greece (mainly in western Macedonia, namely
in the Florina prefecture). The dialects in Greece mainly belong to the
central and southeastern dialect groups; the dialects of the latter
developed in the 19th century into a written language known as Aegean
Macedonian, which was written using the Greek alphabet.
Aromanian
is a language closely related to Romanian. It is spoken mainly in the
administrative region of Thessaly in central Greece by the Aromanian
group (usually referred to as Vlachs in Greek). Their number has been
estimated at up to around 100,000 active and 300,000 passive speakers.
The number of speakers is constantly decreasing, especially among
children.
The Pomak language is spoken in Greece mainly in the
prefectures of Xanthi, Rodopi and Evros. The Pomaks speak the respective
Bulgarian dialects of the area in which they live; the Pomaks of Western
Thrace are classified as the Thracian group of the eastern Rhodope
dialects. In contrast to the approximately 250,000 Pomaks in Bulgaria,
the connection to the Bulgarian written language in Greece is relatively
low, and no written language of their own has developed.
Western
Armenian penetrated into Greece from Anatolia during the Ottoman Empire,
and the former presence of Armenians in Greece is still present today in
numerous place names (e.g. Armeni Αρμένι). There are larger Armenian
communities in Athens and Thessaloniki. Armenians were granted Greek
citizenship in 1968.
Albanian or Arvanite has been present in the
area of present-day Greece since the late Byzantine period. The first
and main wave of immigration took place at the invitation of local
rulers from the 13th century and then mainly in the 14th and up to the
15th century. Since then, the Arvanites have settled in around 300
places in southern Greece. For example, in Boeotia, in Attica to the
east (the area around Athens), on some Aegean islands (including Euboea,
Hydra) and on the Peloponnese. The Albanian-speaking parts of the
population in Greece are not a unified group in terms of history,
language and consciousness. In this respect, their usual Greek name
"Arvanites" is misleading. International science therefore only refers
to the descendants of immigrants from the southern Albanian region as
"Arvanites". They sometimes use an ethnonym that was once common across
Albania, arbërorë, as their own name. The language is then called
arbërisht. However, the majority have now adopted the Greek terms
αρβανίτικα (arvanítika 'Arvanite') in their own language.
Albanian is spoken mainly in the area of the Epirus administrative
district in northwestern Greece and by isolated population groups in the
rest of the country. A distinction is made between the standard
Albanian-speaking Camen, who settled mainly in Epirus and were almost
completely expelled to Albania in 1945 as "collaborators" with the
occupying forces, and the Greek Orthodox Arvanites, who are scattered
throughout central and southern Greece. Arvanite has retained certain
archaic features of Albanian and its vocabulary is so strongly
influenced by modern Greek that it is no longer understandable for
speakers of standard Albanian in Albania. While great attention
continues to be paid to the cultivation of Vlach and Arvanite traditions
and folklore, the number of active speakers of the corresponding
dialects is constantly decreasing due to generational factors. The
number of Arvanites is often estimated today at 150,000 - 200,000 based
on the criteria of language use or awareness.
The Roma living in
Greece speak a dialect of Romani that is widespread throughout the
Balkans. In addition to the Muslim Roma, there are also numerous
Christian Roma (referred to as αθίγγανοι, athíngani, or τσιγγάνοι,
tsingáni) living throughout Greece, some of whom are assimilated by the
majority population, but some of whom also live under conditions of
extreme social isolation, which usually goes hand in hand with the
degree to which they are recognizable as Roma.
Megleno-Romanian,
spoken by the group of Megleno-Romanians (usually referred to as Vlachoi
(Vlachs) in Greek), mainly in the border region with the Republic of
North Macedonia, in the Meglen Valley. There are a few thousand
speakers. The number of Megleno-Romanian speakers is rapidly decreasing.
Ladino, the language of the Jews on the Iberian Peninsula, arrived
in the Ottoman Empire with refugees from the 15th century onwards and
was spoken in many cities in what is now Greece. Only a small remnant of
it remains in Greece today.
Russian, spoken by returnees from the
territory of the former USSR, whose background is in some respects
comparable to that of the population group known in Germany as Russian
Germans.
Similar to Ireland, Poland or Croatia, religious affiliation played a
significant role as an identification feature in the formation of the
Greek nation. Strong commitment to religious rites is therefore
widespread among the Orthodox population. Greece is quite uniform in
terms of religion. According to the constitution, Orthodox Christianity
is the state religion (literally: predominant religion); Greece is the
only country in the world that has declared this denomination of
Christianity to be the state religion. According to the 2018
Eurobarometer, around 96 percent of the population profess the Orthodox
faith, 1.2% consider themselves atheists and 1.7% non-denominational or
agnostic.
Most Greeks belong to the autocephalous Orthodox
Archdiocese of Greece, based in Athens. Believers on Crete, the
Dodecanese and in most monasteries of the autonomous monastic republic
of Athos on the eastern tip of the Chalkidiki peninsula belong to the
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which has its seat in
Istanbul. The so-called "New Lands" (territories in northern Greece and
the Aegean acquired after 1913) are under the administration of the
Church of Greece according to the Patriarchate Act of 1928, but
spiritually they are subordinate to Constantinople.
Other
Christian denominations include around 121,000 Catholic Christians of
the Greek and Latin rites, around 50,000 Jehovah's Witnesses and around
30,000 Protestant (mostly evangelical) Christians of various
denominations.
The Muslim population of Greece is made up of
Turks, Pomaks and Roma as citizens of Greece and, to a large extent,
immigrants, for example from Albania and Pakistan. After the population
exchange in 1923, the number of Muslims had fallen to fewer than
100,000. Today, the number of indigenous Muslims in Greece, living
mainly in Thrace, is estimated at between 140,000 and 150,000. There are
no reliable official figures for the number of Muslim immigrants;
estimates by non-governmental organizations put the number at between
500,000 and 700,000. Greek Muslims in the narrower sense are those
descendants of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire who converted to Islam and
who were almost completely resettled in Turkey as part of the Treaty of
Lausanne, and also ethnic Greeks who converted to Islam in modern times.
Judaism in Greece can look back on a continuity dating back to the
3rd century BC. The probably oldest ruin of a synagogue building was
excavated on Delos and dated to 150 to 200 BC. AD. The oldest synagogue
in operation is the Kahal Shalom Synagogue from 1577 on Rhodes. In 1920
there were 24 Jewish communities, Thessaloniki alone had 40 synagogues.
Of the 77,000 Jews living in Greece in 1940, 55,000 lived in
Thessaloniki (Sephardim), so despite spectacular rescue operations such
as that of Archbishop Damaskinos or the citizens of Zakynthos, only 14%
survived the Holocaust. Today, around 5,000 Jews live in Greece. Many
Greek Jews marry Christians, which contributes to the shrinking of
Judaism.
A representative survey commissioned by the European
Commission as part of the Eurobarometer in 2020 found that 72 percent of
people in Greece consider religion important, 19 percent consider it
neither important nor unimportant, and 9 percent consider it
unimportant.
The Greek education system is roughly divided into pre-school,
school, vocational and higher education, like comparable education
systems in European and North American countries. In 2015, the literacy
rate in Greece was 97.3%. In the 2015 PISA ranking, Greek students
ranked 44th out of 72 countries in mathematics, 44th in science and 41st
in reading comprehension. Greece's values are therefore among the
worst among OECD countries.
In Greece, kindergartens and day-care
centers are available for pre-school education (ages up to 6 years): in
1991, 135,014 children attended 5,529 day-care centers and 8,377
kindergartens. In 2001, 143,401 children attended 5,715 day-care centers
and 11,461 kindergartens. Attendance at these facilities is voluntary.
Article 16 paragraph 3 of the Greek Constitution of 1975 stipulates
nine years of compulsory schooling, starting at the age of five.
Schooling must be free. During the Greek military dictatorship from 1967
to 1974, the junta government considered six years of compulsory
schooling to be sufficient.
The current Greek school system
distinguishes between three types of schools: the Dimotiko Scholio
(grades 1-6), the Gymnasio (grades 7-9) and the Lykio (grades 10-12). In
contrast to the German school system, there are no parallel school
types; all children attend the same type of school. The Dimotiko Scholio
- Dimotiko for short - comprises grades 1 to 6 for children aged six to
twelve. In comparison to the German school system, the Dimotiko
corresponds to the primary level plus the first two years of lower
secondary level. The Dimotiko is followed for all students by the
Gymnasio, a three-year school type (grades 7-9) that is compulsory for
all children, corresponding to the nine-year compulsory schooling. The
Greek education system combines Dimotiko and Gymnasio as basic
education. In 1991 there were 7,526 schools for basic education
(Dimotiko and Gymnasio) with 784,707 students and 42,991 teachers. In
2001 there were 5,753 schools with 639,865 students and 58,376 teachers.
After completing the ninth grade of the Gymnasio, the school career
can be continued voluntarily: the next school is the Lykio, which runs
for three years (grades 10–12). The Lykio corresponds to the upper
secondary level or the upper secondary level of the German school
system. The technical orientations of the Lykio, which have existed
temporarily since the 1980s, were abolished again in 1998: since then
the Lykio has been a uniform school type again. In the third grade of
the Lykio, the students choose one of five elective areas, which include
several subjects. The elective subject combinations lead to different
higher education courses: the first to a technical college and/or
university, the second to a medical college or faculty, the third to a
philosophical or legal higher education course, the fourth to a social
science higher education course and the fifth leads to a technical
college (equivalent to a German university of applied sciences). In
1991, 870,235 students attended 3,604 Lykio-type schools; in 2001,
693,323 students attended 3,968 Lykio-type schools.
Greece has universities (Panepistimio) and technical universities (TEI, most comparable to a German university of applied sciences). The universities are all state-run and administered by the Ministry of Education in Athens. Private universities are prohibited under Article 16, paragraph 8 of the Greek Constitution of 1975. Education at a Greek university is free of charge; those in need are entitled to state support.
In addition to the large universities, the National Hellenic Research
Foundation was founded in 1958 and a year later the NCSR Demokritos,
which operated a research reactor until 2001. It conducts research in
many scientific fields, but had to largely limit its thematic focus
during the crisis because its annual budget was cut from €25 million to
€12 million. Other important research institutions in the country are
the Foundation for Research & Technology - Hellas, founded in 1983, and
the CERTH - The Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas, based in
Thessaloniki.
At 4.4%, employees in research and science make up
a relatively small proportion of the workforce, although the numbers are
increasing by 3.7% annually (2001-2007). However, academic unemployment
is high at 5.7% (OECD average: 3.2%). Relative to the population, a
relatively high number of scientific publications are published, a total
of 0.6% of global publications. Innovations are often carried out with
foreign partners, 14% of companies have foreign partners, and 28.5% of
patents mention foreign co-inventors. The economic crisis has motivated
the government to launch numerous programs to promote science, with
unconventional approaches in particular being promoted more strongly
than before. State programs are coordinated by the General Secretariat
for Research and Technology of the Ministry of Development (GSRT). Given
the small size of the country and the Greek diaspora, most research
institutions have a strong orientation towards foreign countries, and
startups are also often founded with headquarters in larger countries,
although most activities are in Greece.
The country's health expenditure amounted to 9.2% of gross domestic
product in 2021. In the Greek health system, similar to the UK, all
Greek and foreign citizens working in Greece enjoy state insurance
coverage. In 2020, there were 63 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants
practicing in Greece. The doctor can choose between working in the
public sector or in a private practice; both options together are not
possible. Care can be divided into two categories:
Primary care
provided by the state insurance, with unequal conditions in medical
services in cities, urban outskirts and rural districts. In urban
centers, primary state medical care is significantly better than in
rural areas because there are well-organized medical centers that are
visited by insured people of all areas for treatment. Secondary private
care, as is usually found in private practices and in the capitals of
the administrative districts and in the cities of the larger islands.
The medical care on the islands, which is used by many tourists, is
mainly provided by individual, self-employed doctors, private health
centers with mostly very good specialist equipment, and rural doctors.
In some cases, it is not even necessary to show your personal
medical record in emergencies if the patient is not being treated as an
inpatient. This applies to everyone staying in Greece. Due to the
austerity measures, Greeks are without health insurance after two years
of unemployment.
The current constitution of Greece came into force on June 11, 1975; it was revised in 1986, 2001 and 2008. It defines Greece as a parliamentary republic based on social and constitutional principles.
The Greek President (Greek: Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας/Próedros tis
Dimokratías) is the head of state of the country and, together with the
government, forms the executive branch. He is elected by parliament
every five years and has mainly representative functions in everyday
politics. His duties include swearing in the prime minister and the
ministers proposed by him. The Greek President also has a general right
of veto in parliament; this can be overruled by an absolute majority of
MPs.[96] Under special circumstances, the constitution allows him to
dissolve parliament and call new elections. The president can dissolve
the government if the government requests it or if parliament has
successfully passed a vote of no confidence. The relatively limited
scope of action of the head of state is also evident in the fact that
almost all of his sovereign acts must be countersigned by the
responsible minister. The president is only granted extended powers in
the event of an emergency. He can then act legislatively at the
suggestion of the government. The Greek president is also the
commander-in-chief of the Greek armed forces. The constitution prohibits
him from declaring a state of defense or concluding alliances and
treaties.
The office of the president enjoys a very high
reputation among the population in Greece; this has increased since 2009
(the beginning of the sovereign debt crisis), while trust in politics
and parties has declined. The incumbent president of Greece has been
Katerina Sakellaropoulou since January 2020. She is the first woman to
hold this office.
The official residence of the President is the
Crown Prince's Palace in Herodes Atticus Street in Athens, designed by
Ernst Ziller.
The official residence of the Greek Parliament (Greek: Βουλή των
Ελλήνων/Voulí ton Ellínon) is located in the former Royal Palace on
Athens' Syntagma Square. The legislature consists of one chamber with
300 seats and is elected every four years in secret, general, free,
equal and direct elections. 288 MPs are elected in the country's 56
constituencies and 12 MPs are elected via nationwide party lists. A
special feature of the Greek electoral system is the reinforced
proportional representation: the party with the largest share of the
vote receives 50 additional seats in parliament.
In addition to
legislation, Parliament has the right to withdraw its confidence in the
government or individual members by means of a vote of no confidence
with an absolute majority and to impeach the President or members of the
government with a two-thirds majority. The right of initiative of
individual parliamentarians is limited, as the government can transfer
legislative powers of Parliament to the government or subordinate bodies
by means of legal orders. One of the special characteristics of the
Greek Parliament and its constitution is that the quantitative strength
of a party in the Greek Parliament determines which party leader is
first commissioned by the President to form a government. If he or she
does not succeed, the leader of the next smallest party is given the
task. With regard to the opposition, there is the right to set up
committees of inquiry (minority quorum) - as is otherwise only the case
in Austria, Germany and Portugal within the European Union.
The government of Greece is called the Council of Ministers (Greek:
Υπουργικό Συμβούλιο/Ypourgikó Symvoúlio) and consists of the Prime
Minister (Πρωθυπουργός/Prothypourgós) and the Ministers
(Υπουργοί/Ypourgí). The formation of the government begins after a
parliamentary election, with the party leader of the largest faction
traditionally appointing the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister decides
on the composition of his cabinet and the state secretaries and, after
being appointed by the President and a successful vote of confidence in
Parliament, has the power to set guidelines within the government. The
rights of the Prime Minister were significantly expanded in the 1986
constitutional reform, with the result that the "executive function"
clearly lies with the head of government, who, despite the collegiality
of the Council of Ministers, is also constitutionally the centre of
political power in Greece. The ministers can manage their departments
independently, but must accept political interventions by the Prime
Minister, as he has the authority to issue directives and the right to
propose the appointment and dismissal of ministers. The government can
only be dismissed on its own initiative or after a successful vote of no
confidence in parliament.
PASOK emerged as the strongest party
from the parliamentary elections on October 4, 2009, which were brought
forward due to the economic crisis. Its leading candidate, Giorgos
Papandreou, was tasked with forming a government and was sworn in as
Prime Minister on October 6, 2009. He officially announced his
resignation on November 9, 2011. Loukas Papadimos was sworn in on
November 11, 2011. The Papadimos cabinet was in office from November 10,
2011 to May 16, 2012. After the parliamentary election on May 6, 2012,
no government was formed; another parliamentary election was held on
June 17, 2012. The ND was again the strongest party with 29.7%; it
received 10.8 percentage points more votes than in the election on May
6, 2012. Alexis Tsipras' SYRIZA party, which had called for an end to
austerity measures during the election campaign, was again the second
strongest party with 26.9%. Nevertheless, the two parties ND and PASOK
achieved a parliamentary majority (162 to 138 seats), and they want to
stick to the austerity course and implement reforms. After ND and PASOK
reached an agreement with the Democratic Left to form a government
(Samaras Cabinet), Samaras was sworn in as Greek Prime Minister on June
20, 2012. As of January 27, 2015, two days after the Greek parliamentary
elections, the newly elected government of SYRIZA and ANEL under the
leadership of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (Tsipras Cabinet) was in
office. This was replaced in 2019 by the Kyriakos Mitsotakis I Cabinet,
which was replaced on May 25, 2023 by the acting Ioannis Sarmas Cabinet.
On June 26, 2023, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was sworn in as Prime Minister
again. As head of government, he leads the Kyriakos Mitsotakis II
Cabinet.
The judiciary in Greece is administered by independent courts and is
made up of three different types of courts, each of which is responsible
for civil, criminal and administrative law jurisdiction. This is the
system of so-called separate jurisdictions. In addition, there are
special instances of financial control and constitutional jurisdiction.
The civil courts are divided into peace courts, regional courts and
higher regional courts and are responsible for all private disputes and
the matters of voluntary jurisdiction assigned to them by law. The
criminal courts follow the same institutional structure and also include
special criminal courts such as juvenile or jury courts. An appeal
against the judgment of the civil and criminal courts can be lodged with
an appeal court and finally with the Areopagus (Greek: Άρειος
Πάγος/Ários Págos). The Areopagus is the supreme court and the highest
authority for civil and criminal law issues. The highest authority in
administrative jurisdiction is the Council of State (Greek: Συμβούλιο
της Επικρατείας/Symvoúlio tis Epikratías). The individual administrative
and higher administrative courts, which are responsible for hearing
administrative disputes, are subordinate to it.
The Supreme
Tribunal (Greek: Ανώτατο Ειδικό Δικαστήριο/Anótato Idikó Dikastírio) is
the final decision-making authority for constitutional issues. The
Supreme Tribunal is responsible for reviewing the constitutionality of
laws passed by parliament and also acts as an audit court for
referendums and elections. The Court of Auditors (Greek: Ελεγκτικό
Συvέδριo/Elengtikó Synédrio) is responsible for financial control and,
as the highest court, is responsible for resolving contentious financial
matters.
The central issues of Greek domestic policy are the consolidation of
the state budget, the fight against high unemployment, deregulation and
privatization of the public sector, the promotion of the Greek economy,
the necessary restructuring of the over-indebted state pension insurance
system (Greece spends almost 14 percent of the state budget on pensions,
more than any other country), the reform of the health and education
system and the fight against illegal immigration. After the death of a
young person who was hit by a policeman's bullet, there were nationwide
riots in 2008.
After the change of government in 2009, there were
protests against the austerity budget with which the new government
wants to reduce the state deficit, which is considered a difficult task
due to the equally high state spending of all previous governments and
the widespread corruption.
The Orthodox Church exerts a significant influence on the Greek
education system, with the special status of the Greek Orthodox
denomination as the "predominant religion" being laid down in the Greek
constitution. In the government, the Ministry of Education is
traditionally also responsible for religious affairs. Although the
Orthodox Church is not explicitly granted the status of a state church
in the constitution, Greece is classified in constitutional law as a
state church due to the close institutional interrelationship between
the state and the Orthodox Church, just like Great Britain and Denmark,
for example. The Orthodox Church is also partially subordinate to the
state; for example, all bishops must be confirmed by parliament and
newly elected governments must be sworn in by the Orthodox archbishop.
The salaries of Greek priests are paid by the state.
In 1982,
family law was changed to allow civil marriages. Until then, marriages
that were not concluded according to the Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim
or Roman Catholic rites were not recognized by the state. Children from
marriages of Protestants or Jehovah's Witnesses were considered
illegitimate under the law. In addition, the obligation to marry in
church was abolished and civil marriage was recognized as equivalent. At
the end of the 1990s, the entry of religion in identity cards was
abolished. In August 2008, the obligation to attend Orthodox religious
education was abolished. Any student who does not want to attend
religious education can now receive tutoring in subjects of their choice
during this time. The Greek Orthodox Church described this regulation as
"wrong and unconstitutional" and would at most have approved the
abolition of the obligation to attend religious education for students
from other states.
In 2008, the head of the Church of Greece,
Archbishop Hieronymos, spoke out in favor of a review of the church
statutes during his election. In 2012, the government planned a change
in the way clergy were paid. By increasing the churches' share of the
salaries, the state treasury would be relieved of around 100 million
euros annually. The approximately 20,000 priests are paid over 200
million euros per year.
The Muslim Turks, Pomaks and Roma of Western Thrace are recognised as
a Muslim minority on the basis of the 1923 Lausanne Peace Treaty and
enjoy a number of special rights, such as school instruction in Turkish,
use of school books from Turkey (according to bilateral agreements),
Koran schools, autonomy in matters of family law according to Sharia
law, etc. In recent decades, the approximately 30,000 Muslim Pomaks who
speak the Rhodope dialect of Bulgarian known as Pomak have increasingly
assimilated into the Turkish group. They are clearly distinguished from
the very heterogeneous group of Romani and Turkish-speaking Muslim Roma.
Until the population exchange with the neighbouring countries Turkey
and Bulgaria from 1920 to 1925 as a result of the Treaties of Neuilly
(1919) and Lausanne (1923), Greece was effectively a multi-ethnic state.
The proportion of non-native Greek speakers, which was still around 15%
in 1925, decreased continuously in the following decades; especially
during the occupation by the Axis powers (1941–1944) and the Greek Civil
War (1946–1949), members of minorities were persecuted or expelled, and
their proportion gradually fell below five percent.
The Muslim
minority formed party formations in the early 1990s. These were
temporarily represented in parliament by two MPs (the Turks Sadık Ahmet
and İbrahim Şerif), but this was no longer possible after the one
percent hurdle was raised to three percent. Currently, one MP of the
conservative People's Party Nea Dimokratia comes from the Muslim
minority (the Turk İlhan Ahmet). Points of conflict with the Greek state
include the currently prohibited use of the adjective "Turkish" to name
associations and the desire to elect the leading Islamic legal scholars
(Muftis), who are currently appointed as public employees by the state.
Before 1990, apart from the minorities mentioned, only a few
foreigners lived in Greece. Due to a policy that is not very restrictive
against immigrants, Greece has become the EU country with the most
foreigners in percentage terms. The Greek state is trying to assimilate
the new arrivals, and the acquisition of citizenship for immigrants has
been simplified several times. Currently, a five-year residence period
in Greece is required. Since 2010, citizenship has been granted
automatically upon birth in Greece or upon attending the first three
years of primary school or six years of school in Greece; an application
is not necessary.
Amnesty International and the Greek Ombudsman
for Human Rights regularly point out deficits in human rights
protection. The treatment of migrants and Roma families in particular is
inadequate. The Muslim minority living in Western Thrace regularly
complains about violations of minority rights. From a Greek perspective,
they cannot be called the "Turkish minority" because the Treaty of
Lausanne, which regulated the Greek-Turkish population exchange in 1923,
defined minorities in religious terms. The small number of
Slavic-speaking citizens are not recognized as a minority.
The country is particularly affected by the large influx of refugees
from African countries, which Greece is only able to cope with
inadequately. In 2011, 55,000 refugees entered the EU via the
Greek-Turkish land border on the Evros River alone. The Greek
authorities are organized to either care for new arrivals or deport them
away from the public, so that many settle in illegal tent camps in large
cities, from where they look for work. The care provided by citizens'
initiatives and church communities is far from meeting the needs.
In 2010, a National Action Plan for Asylum Reform and Migration
Management was adopted, which, in addition to setting up authorities for
initial reception and asylum procedures, also provides for the
establishment and expansion of reception facilities for migrants. In
addition, the Greek government hopes that the imminent accession of
Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area will ease the burden on its
own external borders.
Greece is repeatedly criticized by NGOs
such as Amnesty International for its refugee and asylum policy.
Criticism is also often heard from other EU countries that Greece is not
providing adequate care for refugees. In March 2012, only eleven people
in the state authority responsible for asylum seekers were involved. The
Greek government has repeatedly called for EU support in securing its
external borders, for example by strengthening Frontex and negotiating
readmission agreements between the EU and the countries of origin and
transit.
Even in 2023, human rights violations such as arbitrary
arrests, violence and coercion still occur regularly. In addition, the
rule of law in Greece was called into question by a study which found
that trials for alleged human smuggling often affect asylum seekers,
last on average only 37 minutes and end with convictions and prison
sentences averaging 46 years.
Greece joined NATO in 1952 and has been a member of the European
Union since 1981. In addition, there are memberships in numerous
international organizations and forums such as the United Nations, the
OECD, the World Bank, the Council of Europe, the International Monetary
Fund, UNESCO or, at the regional level, the BSEC and the SEECP.
In the technological and scientific field, Greece supports or
participates in various international projects such as the Large Hadron
Collider (CERN) or the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and is a member of the
European Space Agency (ESA), among others. From 2005 to 2007, the
country was represented as a non-permanent member of the UN Security
Council. In terms of peace policy, the country is involved in several
international foreign missions and development projects, including in
Afghanistan (ISAF), Sudan (UNMIS), Georgia (UNOMIG), Bosnia-Herzegovina
(EUFOR), Kosovo (KFOR) and Albania (NHQT).
The Foreign Minister
is Nikos Dendias.
Greece's path into the Western European structure is closely linked
to the name Konstantinos Karamanlis and began on June 8, 1959 with the
application of the national-radical head of government (1955–1963) for
association with the European Economic Community (EEC) and the
association negotiations that followed. The signing of the treaty for
the country's association took place on July 9, 1961 and led to Greece's
association with the European Economic Community on November 1, 1962.
After the political turmoil in the 1960s, the subsequent period of
military dictatorship and the associated suspension of the association
agreement from 1967 to 1974, the reinstated (and in 1975 elected) Prime
Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis and his newly founded Nea Dimokratia
(ND) submitted the official application for the country's admission to
the European Economic Community on June 12, 1975. After the start of
accession negotiations on July 27, 1976 and the signing of the Act of
Accession on May 28, 1979, Greece joined the EEC as the tenth state on
January 1, 1981 against the wishes of its population, which also marked
the beginning of the southern expansion of the Community. Later, during
Karamanlis' term as President, Greece also joined the Schengen Agreement
on November 6, 1992 under an ND government and the EC internal market
(Maastricht Treaty) on January 1, 1993. This completed the country's
integration into what was now known as the European Community.
Concerns expressed by the left-wing parties critical of the EEC and
NATO, the re-admitted KKE and PASOK, newly founded in 1974, about a
possible loss of political autonomy and the competitiveness of local
companies in favor of foreign corporations, were dismissed as
ideologically motivated. The fears of the largely self-employed
population were to be reflected in the landslide election of the
socialist PASOK (48%) under Andreas Papandreou and the communist KKE
(11%) in 1981, the year Greece joined the EEC. The policies of the new
Prime Minister Papandreou often appeared to be at odds with those of
other EEC states, but he nevertheless ignored the voters' vote and,
contrary to expectations, remained in NATO and the EEC. The Greeks
feared that this would further widen the geopolitical divide between
Western and Eastern Europe in the region and isolate Greece even more
from its neighbors.
The country experienced a destabilization of
the national economy with the formation of the European Community in
1993. The enthusiasm for Europe among the population therefore remained
limited. The reason for this was mainly due to the fact that, despite
subsidized projects from the EC structural funds, the positive effects
of membership were slow to materialize and were rather invisible to
large parts of the (self-employed) population. Except for a very few
large companies, the development of the open internal market had proved
to be of little benefit to them. Instead, their own markets were flooded
with goods and services from foreign corporations, against whose price
dumping the classic Greek small business could hardly fight. So that
from 52% when the country joined the EEC (OECD statistics:
"self-employment"), today in 2015 only a good 30% of the workforce was
self-employed - still an EU record, but self-employment is still not
sufficiently replaced by wage-earning work.
In the euphoric
anticipation of the turn of the millennium and because of the honor of
hosting the 2004 Olympic Games in 1997, the scepticism from the
mid-1990s gradually turned into an initially hesitant willingness to
integrate on the part of the Greek population. Further concerns among
the Greek self-employed about the introduction of a common currency were
discussed intensively, but – until the outbreak of the financial crisis
in 2008 – had not seriously called into question membership of the EU.
At that time, Greece was committed to an open Europe within the European
Union. The geopolitical situation is also a motivation for all major
political parties with the exception of the KKE to further advance
European integration and justifies the interest in connecting the
Balkans to the EU and the support for Turkey's accession to the EU.
Other focal points of Greek policy in the European Union include, for
example, a common immigration and asylum policy or a common foreign and
security policy, which is intended to provide a stronger counterweight
to NATO and the USA.
Greece held the EU Council Presidency in the
first half of 2003 under the Social Democratic Prime Minister
Konstantinos Simitis. It was marked by the eastern expansion of the
European Union, the drafting of a constitutional treaty by the Reform
Convention, and the Iraq war and its effects on the European Union. The
historical high point was the signing of the accession treaties with the
ten new EU member states on April 16, 2003 in Athens, the birthplace of
democracy, which was seen as a symbolic turning point for the future of
Europe. After 1983, 1988, 1994 and 2003, Greece held the EU Council
Presidency for the fifth time in 2014 - from January 1 to June 30, 2014.
From 1996 onwards, Greece increasingly pursued a policy of European
integration under Prime Minister Konstantinos Simitis and Foreign
Minister Giorgos Papandreou. The focus was on a stronger coordination of
Greek European policy with the policy of the European Union, but on the
other hand, above all, on expanding bilateral cooperation with the
countries of Southeast Europe and rapprochement with Turkey.
This
led to a series of confidence-building agreements with Turkey and a
large number of bilateral and multilateral projects between Greece and
the Balkan states. In 2002, the Greek parliament ratified an aid
programme worth 550 million euros for Southeast Europe, with the aim of
supporting stability and economic reconstruction in the region.
Since the 19th century, the country's relations with Germany have taken
place almost exclusively at the state level. Since the revolution
against the Ottoman Sultan, all "Kings of the Hellenes" have been
members of German royal families. General relations, however, had
existed since the beginning of the 16th century through the increasing
number of Greeks who had emigrated from Byzantium and their close
cultural and economic relations with their old homeland. With the
integration of this wave of immigration, an era developed in Germany
that was later referred to as the Renaissance in art and the
Enlightenment in science, and which was accompanied by the emergence of
a pronounced Philhellenism (e.g. the founding of the Greek community in
Leipzig around 1700). This increased to such an extent in the Romantic
period that it gave the decisive impetus to pan-European support from
the educated elites for the Hellenes' struggle for liberation. An
outstanding German example here is the Munich professor Friedrich
Thiersch, who, through his enormous commitment, raised his own financial
resources to buy the freedom of Greeks sold into slavery in what was
then still Ottoman Alexandria.
Since the end of the Second World
War, there has been continuity on various levels. In 1953, Greece signed
the London Debt Agreement, thereby waiving Germany's repayment of
pre-war debts and thus contributing to the restoration of Germany's
creditworthiness. Greece was the first country after 1945 to invite a
German Federal President, while the international community held back.
The invitation was presented by Ernst August of Hanover on behalf of the
Greek King Paul, and Theodor Heuss made his first state visit to Greece.
Thousands of Athenians went to the train station where the welcoming
ceremony took place. On his return to Germany, Heuss described the trip
as a return to his own spiritual homeland. Foreign Minister Heinrich von
Brentano took the euphoric mood as an opportunity to conclude bilateral
agreements in the areas of culture and education. Foreign ambassadors
demonstratively stayed away from the official reception.
The
relationship with Albania, with which the de facto state of war was only
ended in 1987, is today characterized by close cooperation. In the past
and since the fall of the Iron Curtain, relations with Albania have been
repeatedly strained by a strong and uncontrolled migration movement of
Albanian economic refugees. Contacts with Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia -
which is considered a historical ally - are very good. The opening of
new border crossings has been agreed with Bulgaria and various
infrastructure projects have been started. Diplomatic relations with the
northern neighbor, the Republic of North Macedonia, are being developed
and the outlook is positive.
At the political level,
transatlantic relations between Greece and the United States have
traditionally been good, but historical reservations about US foreign
policy prevail among large sections of the population. The persecution
of left-wing activists immediately after the expulsion of the German
occupiers is blamed on the British and later American liberators. NATO's
passive attitude towards the seven-year military dictatorship and the
Turkish occupation of Cyprus also explained the lack of consensus
between the state and the people and led to the landslide election of
left-wing parties and the first socialist PASOK government in the 1981
parliamentary elections. But it is thanks to the person of its chairman
Andreas Papandreou, who was himself the first Greek prime minister to be
an American citizen and who began to carefully harmonize relations
between the two states, even against the will of his party base. Only
Kostas Simitis pursued this rapprochement with NATO partners more
consistently during his term as prime minister from 1996 to 2004,
incidentally together with his foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou. The
Greeks' rejection of the NATO operation in Serbia in 1999, which was
controversial under international law, and their refusal to participate
in the US-led military operation in Iraq in 2003 continued to strain the
relationship between the two countries. However, with the election of
Giorgos Papandreou, also a US citizen, as Prime Minister of Greece
shortly after his meeting with US President Barack Obama on March 9,
2009 in Washington, D.C., bilateral relations reached a high point.
Due to its geographical location, Greece generally maintains
relatively good contacts with several countries in the Middle East and
has made various attempts in the past to mediate in individual crisis
regions. In recent years, these relations have been used to strengthen
the US-led anti-terror coalition. For example, Greece has traditionally
maintained good contacts with the Palestinians. During the second
Lebanon War between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah in 2006, Greece
was one of the states that advocated an immediate ceasefire. For a long
time, Greece had no special political relations with Israel, but this
changed after the change of government at the end of 2009. Since then,
relations with Israel have intensified, also with the support of the
opposition.
Greece is a member of NATO and maintains a conscription army, which
is divided into the army, air force and navy. In 2017, Greece spent just
under 2.5 percent of its economic output or 5.1 billion dollars on its
armed forces.
In Greece, there is a general military service
requirement for men between the ages of 18 and 45, and the military
service period for conscripts is currently (2008) twelve months. Widowed
fathers or older brothers with responsibilities for caring for one or
more minors are exempt from conscription. For Greeks living abroad, even
those born abroad, the military service period is only three months.
Other Greeks living abroad, immigrants with a Greek passport and
siblings in a family with six or more children have the right to a
reduced military service period of six months. For the eldest brother of
three siblings, for the two eldest brothers of four siblings and for
fathers, the period is nine months. There is no military service
obligation for women, but they can join the military without
restrictions.
The military has always played a special role, as
in the Greek struggle for freedom, which was carried out with the
military support of the great powers. It took power twice in the 20th
century.
The Kallikratis Law of 2010 decentralized public responsibilities and
greatly simplified the structure. 13 regions (sg. περιφέρεια periferia)
have formed the regional level since 2011. They are administered by
their own parliament and by a regional president. The regions are
further subdivided into a total of 325 municipalities (sg. δήμος dimos),
which form the municipal level, but in rural areas are more comparable
to German districts. This abolished the structure into 54 prefectures
(sg. νομός nomos), which had remained virtually unchanged since the
founding of modern Greece; the regions, which had previously been
governed directly by the central government, were given significantly
more powers. The number of municipalities, which up until 1997 had been
reduced to 1,033 (2010: 1,034) by the Kapodistrias programme, has been
reduced again to 325.
The monastic republic of Athos on the
Chalkidiki peninsula is administered largely autonomously and is not
part of the EU tax area.
The Greek economy is a market-oriented economy with limited state
intervention.
Even after Greece joined the European Economic
Community in 1981, self-employment declined. By the time the euro was
introduced, which replaced the Greek drachma, it had fallen from 52%
(1981) to 35% (since 2008) of employees. Since wage-dependent work was
not created to the same extent, large corporations that cooperated as
importers with Western European partners benefited from the country's
connection to the economies of the European industrial nations and the
newly established cohesion fund. Greece's accession to the eurozone in
2001 led to a series of extensive infrastructure measures. Various major
events, such as the 2004 Olympic Games, led to a temporary stimulation
of the Greek economy and an economic upturn that was mainly based on
government contracts. With the financial crisis that began in 2007 and
the subsequent Greek sovereign debt crisis, GDP and wages fell and
unemployment figures rose massively. Employment has fallen to around 33%
of the population, making it one of the lowest in the EU. In 2017, the
unemployment rate was 21.5% (euro area at 10.0%). Youth unemployment (up
to 24 years) rose particularly sharply, from 25% in May 2008 to 48.1%
(2016). After a sustained economic recovery, the unemployment rate fell
below the 10 percent mark for the first time since the financial crisis
at the end of 2023.
The gross domestic product (GDP) in
purchasing power parity (PPP, market prices) per capita was around
21,600 euros in 2008 and around $27,800 in 2017 = around 25,000 euros.
Disposable income fell by almost 40% (adjusted for inflation) between
2008 and 2013.
The tertiary sector is the largest and most
important economic sector in Greece. In 2004 it generated a total of
71.4% and in 2017 around 80% of Greek economic output, with tourism
being a more important growth market (2017: revenues of $16.4 billion
with a GDP of $177.7 billion).
The stagnating domestic market
(less private consumption and government investment) and lower
production costs led to a stronger export orientation.
Due to its
geographical location, Greece has a high potential for the use of both
solar and wind energy. The share of renewable energies in Greece's
energy supply is currently low, but their share is growing steadily,
partly due to government support. By 2020, Greece wants to cover 20% of
primary energy with renewable energies.
Greece also has
significant gas and oil reserves, of which only the oil and natural gas
in the North Aegean have been developed so far. Three new concessions
were awarded in 2012 to develop further fields, mainly in the Ionian
Sea. This is expected to generate revenues of between 11 and 15 billion
euros over a period of 15 to 25 years. However, significantly larger
reserves have also been reported, suggesting revenues of between 300
billion and 465 billion euros.
In the Global Competitiveness
Index, which measures a country's competitiveness, Greece ranks 87th out
of 137 countries (as of 2017-2018). In the Index of Economic Freedom,
the country ranks 127th out of 180 countries in 2017.
The primary sector (agriculture) in Greece has become increasingly less important in the past. The share of primary sector activities in the country's economic output was 6.4% in 2004 and 4% in 2017, with 12% of employees working in agriculture in 2017. Products intended for export, such as wine, tobacco and olives, are grown primarily. The most important wheat-growing areas are Thessaly, Western Thrace, Boeotia and Macedonia. Livestock farming in Greece mainly involves the breeding of sheep and goats. The new goals of expanding livestock farming have led to increased cultivation of barley, corn and other fodder crops. Greece's soil is suitable for growing fruit and vegetables; grapefruit, soy, avocado and asparagus thrive. Due to the topographical conditions, the use of agricultural machinery was avoided for a long time. This changed with the intensification of agriculture. In contrast, the average area of land used for cultivation per farm is still very small. Due to the maritime nature of the country, fishing and fish farming play a special role in Greece. The agricultural sector accounts for 22% of Greece's exports. After the economic crisis, the number of farmers increased by 40,000 within two years, and most new farmers practice organic farming or specialize in areas such as snail farming or truffle production.
The country's secondary sector has been growing steadily since the mid-1990s. Its share of Greece's economic output was 22.2% in 2004 and 16% in 2017. The industrial sector in Greece is characterized by a large number of small and medium-sized companies. The most important economic sectors are the manufacturing industry and the construction industry. Traditionally, food, textile products, metal products, petroleum and coal products, chemicals, glass and cement, machinery and, more recently, technology and telecommunications products have also been increasingly produced. In 2004, the industrial sector contributed 59% to the country's export volume. Countries that sell Greek industrial products include Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Turkey. Since 2008, value added in the industrial sector has fallen significantly (as of 2015) due to the general economic recession in the country. In 2015, the manufacturing industry accounted for 15% of value added.
The service sector accounted for 75.9% of the economy in 2006 and 80%
in 2017, with 65% of all employees. Important sectors in the service
sector are tourism, trade, shipping and financial services. While trade,
the tourism industry and shipping companies have always occupied a
special position in the Greek economy, financial services only developed
with the liberalization of the banking system in Greece and today play
an important role in investments in both Greece and southeastern Europe.
Greek shipping is very important internationally and, with 3,618
Greek-controlled ships (over 1,000 gross registered tons), serves 18.6%
of global shipping traffic. It has stable growth rates even during
consumer crises, and Greek shipping companies have one of the largest
owner fleets, although most of them fly flags of convenience. Most
shipowners come from islands, particularly Andros, Chios and Kefalonia.
Tourism accounted for 10% of gross domestic product in 2008. In
2014, there was a strong upturn in the international tourism business,
with a growth rate of 15%, measured in terms of the number of guests.
Cruises also contributed to this. With over 24 million tourists, Greece
was the 14th most visited country in the world in 2016. Tourism revenues
in the same year amounted to 14.6 billion US dollars.
For a long time, Greece's energy supply was heavily dependent on oil,
coal and gas imports from Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Renewable
energies, as a core element of the energy transition, were used little
until around 2012.
According to the IEA, Greece's primary energy
consumption in 2010 was estimated at 27 Mtoe (314 TWh). Of this, 9.2
Mtoe were generated domestically, corresponding to 34% of total
consumption. The remaining 66% were imported. The main shares of energy
imports in 2010 were mineral oil, natural gas and hard coal, accounting
for over 96%. Mainly due to the economic crisis that began in 2009,
energy demand fell by 24% between 2006 and 2016; in 2016, according to
preliminary data from 2017, it was around 22.9 Mtoe.
Greece's
photovoltaic capacity expanded significantly between 2010 and 2013, from
47 MW in 2009 to 2,579 MW in 2013. In 2012, Greece ranked third in the
world in terms of installed photovoltaic capacity per capita, just
behind Germany and Italy. In all three countries, this expansion was due
to a feed-in tariff for photovoltaic systems. From 2014 to 2018, almost
no further expansion took place; at the end of 2018, total output was
2,665 MW. Photovoltaic systems supplied 8.2% of the electricity
generated in 2018 and 8.3% in 2019. After 2018, expansion accelerated
again, reaching a peak in 2022 with an addition of 1,280 MW, so that by
the end of 2022, a photovoltaic capacity of 5,557 MW had been installed.
By the end of 2023, it was 6,453 MW. The total installed capacity of
Greek wind power plants, which stood at 1.98 GW at the end of 2014, was
3.58 GW in 2019, 4.45 GW in 2021 and 5.23 GW at the end of 2023.
Accordingly, the share of Greek electricity demand covered by wind has
also been steadily increasing: in 2019 it was 12%, in 2021: 18% and in
2023: 20%; for details see Wind energy in Greece.
There are
several hydroelectric power plants, the largest of which is the one at
the Kremasta reservoir with 437 MW. The Thissavros dam serves as a
pumped storage plant and has a capacity of 384 MW.
Since the
start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, energy prices have risen
sharply. Greece has reduced its dependence on Russian gas by increasing
imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It has also intensified the
mining of lignite. Greece wants to increase its capacity to generate
green electricity from around 10 gigawatts to 25 gigawatts.
In 2013, Greece recorded around 81.5 billion euros in government
revenue. This was offset by government spending of around 86.2 billion
euros. The government deficit amounted to around 4.7 billion euros, or
2.6% of GDP. The government's debt level at the end of 2019 was 180.92%
of GDP.
As a result of the international financial crisis that
began in 2007, the debt of the Greek public budget rose massively. The
Greek government at the time gave extensive guarantees to the banks and
supported the financial institutions with new equity. These rescue
packages turned bank risks into government risks, which, according to an
ECB study, led to higher risk premiums for government bonds.
Greece had 113.84 tons of gold reserves in the third quarter of 2020. At
a price of 1516 euros per troy ounce (as of January 12, 2021), this
corresponds to a value of approximately 5.553 billion euros.
In
2020, the share of government spending (in % of GDP) in the following
areas was:
Health: 9.5%
Education: 4.4% (estimate)
Military:
3.1% (2024)
A general problem in Greece is clientelism, corruption and the shadow economy. The latter, at 3900 euros per capita per year, is just above the EU average of 3700 euros (Germany: 4400 euros shadow economy per capita per year). Tax evasion is widespread. Due to the high proportion of self-employed people (around a third), tax evasion per self-employed person is low compared to the EU. On the other hand, the number of tax officials is well below the OECD average, so that effective control of companies is not possible. Greece has the smallest public administration in the EU (OECD 2011).
In 2007, the effective tax on income from profits and assets in
Greece was 15.9%. In Germany, the rate was 24.4%; the highest rate in
the EU at that time was in the United Kingdom at 42.7%. In addition, the
share of military spending in GDP is significantly higher than that of
other European countries at around 4% (= 9.5 billion euros). In
contrast, in 2009, Greece's per capita military spending of 860 euros
corresponds to the average in the euro zone.
Measured by total
debt in relation to gross domestic product, Greece is the most indebted
member state in the European Union.
At the end of November 2009, the Papandreou government had to
recognise a looming national deficit of 12.7% (after 7.7% in 2008) of
gross domestic product. In addition, the 2010 budget year was threatened
with a debt level of 121% of gross domestic product (according to the EU
convergence criteria, a maximum of 60% is permitted, although only a few
EU countries managed this at the time under the influence of the
financial crisis that began in 2007). In countries like Greece, the
situation is made more difficult by the fact that the economy is heavily
indebted abroad. On balance (assets minus debt), the Greek economy was
indebted abroad to the tune of around 76% of gross domestic product in
2008 (after Portugal with 99% and Spain with 81%).
The Chairman
of the EU Council of Finance Ministers, Anders Borg, already assessed
the financial situation in Greece as dramatic at the turn of the year
2009/2010. On February 3, 2010, the EU Commission decided to place the
Greek budget under EU control. The government in Athens was required to
report on its savings successes to Brussels every two to three months.
Jean-Paul Fitoussi, economist and economic advisor to the French
President, pointed out, however, that Greece only accounts for 3% of the
Eurozone.
According to a report in the New York Times in February
2010, US banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan have helped Greece
conceal the extent of its national debt over the past ten years. New
loans were recorded as currency transactions. In return, expected future
income, for example from airport fees and lottery winnings, was
assigned. It later emerged that Greece's accession to the Eurozone in
2001 was based on embellished information from the government, in
particular by concealing the high national deficit.
On April 11,
2010, the finance ministers of the Eurogroup agreed on the details of a
three-year aid package: It is to have a volume of 45 billion euros in
the first year, two thirds to be paid by the euro members. The German
contribution for 2010 is estimated by the federal government at 8.4
billion euros. The problem of the Greek financial crisis worsened in
April 2010 due to a significant increase in the price of credit default
swaps (due to a mass purchase by several large banks), which serve as
insurance against the default of Greek government bonds. The rating
agency Standard & Poor's rated Greece's creditworthiness at BB+/B,
Moody's at A3 and Fitch Ratings at BBB- (as of April 27, 2010). On June
14, 2010, Moody's also lowered the rating for Greek government bonds to
Ba1 and thus to "junk level".
After interest rates on ten-year
government bonds rose to over 8.5% in April 2010, the Greek government
had to capitulate to the pressure of the financial markets on April 23,
2010 and request foreign financial aid with the aim of averting
insolvency. On the night of May 10, 2010, the EU and the IMF agreed on
loans totaling 110 billion euros to support the particularly affected
European PIIGS states, which include Greece. The usefulness of these
measures is controversially discussed among experts. The ECB and other
EU states also bought up Greek government debt from banks and funds to
the tune of around 100 billion euros (up to July 2011).
On March 3, 2010, a VAT increase to 21% was decided, which came into
effect on March 15, 2010. At the same time, all public employees'
salaries were cut. This is expected to save 4.8 billion euros annually.
On May 2, 2010, the Greek government approved a package of measures
negotiated with the IMF and the EU. By 2013, around 30 billion euros are
to be cut through, among other things, administrative cuts and salary
cuts. The next day, 3 people died in violent protests in downtown
Athens. On May 12, 2010, Greece received the first 5.5 billion euros
from the IMF from the rescue package. The major unions announced another
general strike. On July 1, 2010, another VAT increase to 23% came into
effect.
Overall, the Greek austerity policy initially reduced
government spending by ten percent and the government budget deficit
initially decreased until August 2010. In return, however, budget
deficits and bankruptcies in the private sector increased, as did the
number of unemployed. Investments, GDP and thus the tax revenues based
on them all fell.
On March 7, 2011, the rating agency Moody's
downgraded Greece's credit rating by three notches from "Ba1" to "B1".
On March 30, 2011, Standard & Poor's also lowered its credit rating
again from BB+ to BB-. On May 20, 2011, Fitch's rating was lowered from
BB+ to B+.
The Greek parliament approved the government's third
package of austerity measures on June 29, 2011, at the request of the EU
and IMF. By 2015, the Greek government plans to further cut spending or
raise around 78 billion euros (around 28 billion euros through benefit
cuts and tax increases, 50 billion through privatization and the sale of
state-owned real estate). In 2010 and 2011, tax increases and spending
cuts amounting to 20 percent of economic output were implemented. From
2009 to 2013, social benefits were reduced by 26 percent. However, Fitch
criticized the measures taken by the European Union (EU) and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) as being implausible and downgraded
the country's credit rating from B+ to CCC on July 13, 2011. The other
two rating agencies, Standard & Poor's ('CCC') and Moody's (Caa1), had
already reduced their ratings to a comparable level. The absolute low
point was reached on February 22, 2012: "The issuer default rating was
lowered from CCC to C, reflecting the assessment that a default is very
likely in the near future," Fitch announced. By 2014, the ratings had
improved to B (S&P and Fitch) and Caa1 (Moody's). However, Greece was
downgraded again in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in January
2015, until a new negative rating was reached on June 29 after months of
conflict between the newly elected left-wing populist Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras and the international lenders (S&P 'CCC–', Moody's
'Caa2', Fitch 'CCC'). After negotiations for a third aid package and the
announcement of further austerity measures, Greece was upgraded again.
On July 3, Greece was declared insolvent by the European Financial
Stability Facility (EFSF) after defaults.
On August 14, the Greek
parliament approved a third aid package worth 84 billion euros.
On August 20, 2018, the last of the three international aid programs
for Greece expired. However, the national debt was still very high at
180% of gross domestic product.
In January 2019, Greece issued
five-year government bonds for the first time since the end of the aid
programs, with an interest rate of 3.6%, the lowest in over twelve
years; in March, ten-year government bonds were issued for the first
time since 2010.
In the parliamentary elections on July 7, 2019,
the ND won 158 of the 300 seats in parliament. Kyriakos Mitsotakis was
elected prime minister. In July 2019, the Economic Sentiment Indicator
(IFE) was above the average of the 19 eurozone countries for the first
time and at its highest level since 2008, despite a continuing difficult
economic situation with low growth prospects. Mitsotakis had announced
that he would bring the country up to the level of an investment-worthy
debtor within 18 months. He also announced tax cuts and administrative
reform. The yield on ten-year government bonds fell below 2% for the
first time since the introduction of the euro. On August 26, 2019,
Mitsotakis abolished the capital controls introduced in 2015.
On
April 11, 2022, Greece repaid its entire debt to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) - 1.85 billion euros in emergency loans - almost two
years ahead of schedule.
In addition to the traditionally great importance of commercial
shipping for the Greek economy, passenger shipping is also of particular
importance due to the long coastline and the wealth of islands.
Due to its proximity to Athens, the most important port for domestic
connections is still Piraeus, but the importance of the port of Rafina
is increasing and it also has expansion options. Ferries travel to all
larger islands and from there to neighboring smaller ones. The ports of
Igoumenitsa (for the west and north of the country) and Patras in the
Peloponnese (for the south of the country) are important for
long-distance connections to Italy.
In the area of water
sports, special conditions apply to traffic between the national borders
of both countries due to the EU external border between Greece and
Turkey. If boats are used privately (tourism) to travel to the other
country, they must be cleared at a port of entry. There is a special
situation for boats under the Greek flag, as they have to leave the
country's maritime infrastructure and the coastal area again after
clearing customs in a Turkish port. On the other hand, some ports in
Greece are also under special official observation due to the problem of
people smuggling to Italy.
National roads are signposted in blue and in the transport font,
motorways are signposted in green and primarily in the DIN 1451 font.
Motorway construction in Greece is financed through tolls, some were
privately financed and will only become state property after a few
decades.
While since the 1960s it was mainly the national roads
that were expanded (and in some cases rerouted), from the late 1980s
onwards it was decided to expand the Greek motorways due to increasing
motorization (until then only a few national roads had been expanded as
motorways without being separately signposted). At that time, public and
cooperative transport accounted for around 70% of total traffic. The
Corinth-Athens-Thessaloniki highway was expanded to six lanes and
bypassed near Athens with the Attiki Odos link. The Egnatia Odos (A2)
was completed in 2010. The gap in the Patras-Corinth highway (Olympia
Odos) is currently being closed as a PPP project, as is the Ionia Odos
(A5) in the west of the country.
The regional KTEL cooperatives
operate a network of long-distance connections with intercity buses, as
well as local transport in small towns and in the countryside.
The railway network of the Greek railway company OSE is far less
important than in Central Europe, for example, due to the topography
(mountains and many islands). It consists of a standard gauge main
network, a meter gauge network in the Peloponnese, the rack railway from
Diakopto to Kalavrita with a gauge of 750 mm and the Pelion railway with
a gauge of 600 mm, on which two sections are used as a museum.
It
is single-track in large sections and has been greatly neglected in
recent decades. Modernization work began in the 1990s, particularly on
the Piraeus-Thessaloniki railway line, including the modernization of
Athens station, and in 2004 the Athens suburban railway (Proastiakos)
was opened. This led to a considerable increase in the number of
passengers. On the Athens-Thessaloniki route, the train is now the
fastest means of land transport.
The narrow-gauge network in the
Peloponnese is in poor condition and is being gradually replaced by a
standard-gauge network with a new route. The connection from Athens to
Kiato has been completed, the construction of the extension to Rododafni
should be completed by the end of 2016, but is currently (2022) not yet
in operation. The remaining parts are currently out of service.
International direct connections existed between Thessaloniki and the
following cities until they were generally discontinued in February
2011: Belgrade, Budapest, Bucharest, Istanbul, Ljubljana, Skopje, Sofia,
Svilengrad and Zagreb. Since May 2014, international direct connections
from Thessaloniki to Sofia on the one hand and via Skopje to Belgrade on
the other hand (there is a connection to Budapest) have been resumed.
The northwestern interior of the country is not served by the railway
network.
Greek rail freight transport has an annual transport
capacity of 555 million tonne-kilometers and thus has a share of the
modal split of only 3%.
In February 2023, the Tembi train
accident occurred on the Athens-Thessaloniki railway line, in which 57
people died, making it the worst train accident in Greek rail traffic.
Massive protests took place afterwards.
Of the approximately 40 Greek civil airports, around 15 offer international flight connections. The largest and most important airport is Athens-Eleftherios Venizelos Airport. In addition to Thessaloniki-Macedonia Airport, the airports of Heraklion, Rhodes, Kos, Corfu, Chania and Zakynthos Airport, which primarily serve tourism, are of considerable importance. The Greek airlines Olympic Air and Aegean Airlines as well as numerous foreign airlines operate a dense network of connections within Greece from Athens and Thessaloniki and also fly to numerous European cities such as London, Madrid, Paris, Rome and Vienna.
In 2019, the fire brigade in Greece was organized by around 13,700
professional and around 2,100 volunteer firefighters, who work in 285
fire stations and firehouses, in which 2,021 fire engines and 110
turntable ladders or telescopic masts are available. The proportion of
women is 12%. 406 children and young people are organized in the youth
fire brigades. In the same year, the Greek fire brigades were called out
to 72,545 operations, and 27,784 fires had to be extinguished. 21 dead
people were rescued by the fire brigades and 36 injured people were
saved. The national fire brigade association Αρχηγείο Πυροσβεστικού
Σώματος represents the Greek fire brigade in the world fire brigade
association CTIF.
In addition to the state-organized fire
brigade, there is the Association of Volunteers (ESEPA), comparable to
the volunteer fire brigade in Germany. The low population density and
the many islands have a fatal effect on forest fires in summer, which
are often caused by negligent flaming of the harvested fields, favored
by the hot desert winds from the Sahel zone. The Greek Air Force has the
largest fleet of firefighting aircraft in the European Union.