NEWS

Parliament spares three floral landmarks

Florists who have worked out of tiny stalls outside the Parliament building in central Athens rejoiced yesterday following a decision to spare three out of 10 of these landmarks due to go out of business under new draft legislation. «When we realized that we weren’t going to be evicted we were relieved because, apart from the commercial aspect, we have been here for so many years and didn’t want to leave overnight,» Ioannis Kostakis, who has been running his florist on Syntagma for 57 years, told Kathimerini. The remaining seven florists, most of which have been operating since 1930, pass into Parliament’s ownership following the approval of the amendment, which forms part of a bill on civil servants’ pensions. Kostakis acknowledged that his business is no longer the most secure investment. «You can even buy flowers at the traffic lights these days,» he said.

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