The Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, characterised the influx of Pakistanis at Syntagma Square on New Year as "unacceptable" in an interview on ANT1 TV on Monday morning.
"These images are completely unacceptable. As soon as I saw them, I called the police and they told me that this lasted about half an hour," said Georgiadis in response to the hundreds of foreigners who gathered at Syntagma Square, many without masks.
An eye witness told Greek City Times that the scenes did not last 30 minutes, as Georgiadis alleges, but at least around two hours.
"Every year it happens that foreigners are in Syntagma Square for the change of time," the minister said, adding: "Since 2000, I have seen videos on YouTube, as Greeks are at home for the change of time."
In videos posted on social media, it can be seen that hundreds of people gathered to count down to 2022 in defiance of COVID-19 measures.
The videos:
@mohamodmahammed♬ الصوت الأصلي - Mohamod Mahammed
@mohamodmahammedAthens,🇬🇷 Greece🇬🇷🇬🇷🇬🇷
READ MORE: Erdoğan and Imran Khan gave the driving seat to emotion and the back seat to reason.
On January 25 the Greek Orthodox Church celebrates the Feast Day of Saint Gregory the…
North Macedonia's Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, has suggested that Greece might harbor a guilty conscience…
The European Commission has wrapped up its preliminary investigation into the social media platform X…
Perdiccas III of Macedon (reigned 368–359 BCE) was a ruler of the ancient Kingdom of…
Marina Satti returns with "Epano sto Trapezi," a bold new single and music video that’s…
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon praised Tesla's Elon Musk during an interview at the World…