The past week or so has been primarily characterized by chance run-ins with government officials. When we were in Chalkida there was a protest that was happening for workers rights as we arrived and began our walking tour led by Stella. This drew quite the crowd, especially a second part that seemed to be happening because the Prime Minister of Greece was visiting. A couple of us got dinner near where this seemed to be happening and in the middle of our dinner he walked past. My understanding of this encounter was that he was in town on a planned visit, but I was unclear as to whether the protest was planned because he was coming or whether he was coming because of the planned protest. Regardless, it was surprising to see, especially since there was far less security around him than I would have expected just from how it is done in the United States. There were enough people in the crowd with ear pieces that we were confident that it was someone who was important, but there was no obvious secret service to the extent that I am used to seeing in videos of the President of the United States walking around a major city. Perhaps I falsely exaggerate how much security surrounds the President, but perhaps Greece is considered a safer place to be a prominent politician. I do not think that the lack of obvious security is due to him being beloved by the people such that he feels safe, as he seemed rather unpopular. I am not an expert of Greek politics but neither the people in the protest surrounding his visit nor the waiters at the restaurant we were at seemed to like him. In fact we asked our waiter about him in order to confirm that we were correct that it was the Prime Minister since none of us are very familiar with what he looks like and he confirmed it and then started telling us about how much he and the general populace, of at least that city, dislike him. He in fact said “we hate him.” Greece seems to have stricter gun laws than the USA so perhaps that makes a big enough difference that the same level of security is unnecessary. Alternatively, there may be less of a tradition of assassinating or threatening to assassinate the prime minister or the security was simply better disguised.
The second encounter was with a slightly different group of people who went to a jazz club on Thursday night. We went to Half Note and there was a performance in collaboration with the embassy and so, to our surprise, the Portuguese and Brazilian ambassadors were there. The singing was primarily in Portuguese and Greek and so we could not understand the lyrics much but the singer chose to talk in between the songs in English. This was hands down one of my favorite experiences in Athens.
I felt a bit out of place since it was clearly a place that was for more middle aged adults and perhaps a bit fancier than we were prepared for, but the music was amazing and we had a great time. Again the ambassadors had little to no visible security. This seemed a bit less out of place as I do not expect ambassadors to have the same level of security as heads of state, but there seemed to be none at all which is less than expected.
I like the lack of obvious overt security here, it lends a safer atmosphere to walking around and seeing government officials. I did not expect to see as many government officials, not that I have seen many, but I did not expect to see any on my trip. All the sightings were completely by chance and I felt unalarmed at all of them but it was fun and provided a nice contrast to what I have experienced in the USA.