Overnight restrictions anger business owners in Mykonos
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Wary of a rise in daily coronavirus cases that threatens to undo its relative success in containing the pandemic so far, the Greek government is imposing local restrictions on businesses, especially those that cater to big crowds, and business owners on the island of Mykonos don’t like it one bit.
Mykonos is a textbook case of crowds coming together. Off-season, the small island is home to 10,000. In the summer, it welcomes over 2 million visitors who are attracted by its reputation for the high life and a hedonistic lifestyle.
“You can’t take a unilateral decision and shut down the island the following day, at midnight,” bar owner Stavros Grimplas told The Associated Press of the government edict on Aug. 10, imposing a midnight closing time on bars, cafes, clubs and restaurants from Aug. 11 until Aug. 23.
“Everyone has come (to Mykonos) to eat their food, to entertain themselves, swim in the sea. At this moment, we are fooling them. We told them ‘come to Greece’ and Greece has shut down,” a clearly frustrated Grimplas continued.
When Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis officially declared the tourist season open on June 13, he had said that “there is no risk-free approach.”
The government says it won’t back down from the measures and has indeed extended them to much of the country. From Monday, the midnight closing hours extended to the capital, Athens. And there have been more fines and even arrests for flaunting the rules. A parish priest was arrested in Athens on Saturday for calling on his flock, on Facebook, not to wear masks at Mass on Sunday.
