Syntagma Square’s Refurbishment Signals Greece’s Emergence From Crisis

Syntagma Square, Athens. Photo source: ACVB

The Bloomberg news agency has noticed that something is changing in Athens one day after Eurostat confirmed that Greece had achieved a primary surplus of 3.4 billion euros in 2013, four years after the country had  requested international bailout funds.

In an report entitled “Athens Lacking Only Elgin as Windows Erase Crisis,” the news agency refers to the changes taking place in the Greek capital.

According to Bloomberg, the scene in Athens today is very different than the “chaos” of previous years: “The cosmetic changes around the city’s central plaza signal Greece’s emergence from the crisis that made Athens the fuse to Europe’s debt bomb.”

The article also refers to the Mayor of Athens Giorgos Kaminis who is making efforts for a return to normalcy in a city dubbed the most unlivable in western Europe since 2010 by Mercer, the consulting division of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos.

“We cannot surrender to fatalism… We have to promote Athens,” Mr. Kaminis told the news agency.

The report notes that for Athens, “recovery depends on attracting visitors to its museums and sites such as the 2,500-year-old Parthenon temple on the Acropolis, the citadel of the ancient city-state where the concept of democracy originated.”

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