Retailers in 3 regions up in arms over delay in reopening

The governors of Western Greece, Central Macedonia and Western Macedonia have sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, demanding an emergency subsidy of 5,000 euros per retail business.

The cities of Patras, Kozani and Thessaloniki, where the government decided to delay the opening of retail for at least a week, given the rising viral lode in these areas, are in each of the above-mentioned regions.

The governors say the subsidy is warranted because retailers spent money in preparations for a reopening of their stores that will now not happen and that the businesses are dangerously short of cash.

Retailers in those three cities are up in arms after the government’s decision exempting them from the re-opening of their trade in the rest of the country. In Patras, where Alternate Interior Minister Stelios Petsas went to explain the government’s decision, he was roundly booed.

The Patras retailers have decided, as a symbolic protest, to open their stores Monday, without doing any business.