Athens mayor responds to critics over Omonia Square crowding

Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis on Friday responded to criticism over scenes of over-crowding at Thursday’s unveiling of the new fountain on downtown Omonia Square.

“We made a mistake,” Bakoyannis said in a video post on Facebook, standing in front of the new fountain, whose unveiling on Thursday night ended up drawing a crowds of hundreds of people, in violation of social distancing measures.

“We made a very big mistake because we did not predict that when the new Omonia was opened, when thousands of people pass through there every day, many people would reasonably gather spontaneously,” he added.

Bakoyannis clarified that the municipal authority had not planned to make a big occasion of the square’s unveiling and that police were issuing constant recommendations for social distancing, but the situation appears to have got out of hand due to the large number of people who regularly frequent the area.