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LETTER FOR THE EDITOR Athens Unveils Ambitious Plan to Transform Historic CenterThe Greek government has spent the week touting a successful P-TEC conference, that cemented the country further into the energy-transit big leagues. Then came the Cypriot president’s visit and yet another attempt to revive the long-delayed electricity interconnector. Energy may be the theme the government wants front and center, but former PM Antonis Samaras had other plans; his blistering criticism of Kyriakos Mitsotakis stirred political turbulence New Democracy would rather have skipped. All this unfolded during a week when global attention should, in theory, be on Belém, where COP30 opened with stark warnings about an overheating planet. Greece, one of Europe’s most climate-vulnerable countries, was conspicuously absent at the highest level — an odd choice for a government so eager to talk about energy. Thankfully, help is on the way from elsewhere: NTUA’s award-winning research team has unveiled Nereon, Greece’s first solar-powered boat — a reminder that innovation sometimes surfaces from places politics tends to overlook.  | Polymili Myrto
Senior Editor for To Vima International Edition |
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THE BIG STORY Energy: The New Frontier  Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis poses with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, prior to their talks in Athens, Greece, November 12, 2025. REUTERS/Louisa Gouliamaki Greece’s first long-term LNG deal with the United States, signed at the P-TEC summit, was framed as a decisive moment in Athens’ emergence as an energy transit hub. Beginning in 2030, American gas will land in Greece and move north through the Vertical Corridor, supported by new MoUs with Ukraine and Romania that underline growing demand in the region. But the agreement also revealed a quieter truth: Greece still lacks the infrastructure needed to manage the volumes it hopes to transit. That gap has revived investor interest in the country’s dormant FSRU projects. If even some move forward, they would significantly expand Greece’s storage and regasification capacity and give substance to its ambitions. The week’s other major energy development emerged from the third Greece–Cyprus Intergovernmental Summit. While the agenda ranged widely, the key outcome was the decision to update the financial and technical data of the Great Sea Interconnector — the long-delayed cable meant to stitch the Eastern Mediterranean to the EU grid. Much now depends on whether investors see in this moment an opportunity worth seizing — or a risk better left untouched. |
Cartoon of the week |
Briefing 4 Things to Know This Week  Defense Minister Nikos Dendias attends a meeting of the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and Defense (KYSEA) chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. ( INTIME NEWS)  | COP30 Opens - and Greece Watches from the SidelinesAs COP30 gets underway in Belém with warnings that the 1.5°C target is slipping out of reach, negotiators face familiar obstacles rising emissions, stalled climate finance and political drift. In a candid interview with To Vima, former EU Commissioner Maria Damanaki urges Greece to assert its role as an energy transit hub — but warns that expensive U.S. gas, uneven EU coordination and Europe’s creeping climate fatigue could derail that ambition. |
 Start if the trial of the Tempi railway accident, at the `Geopolis` conference center of the University of Thessaly Larissa, Greece on March 23, 2026. / Έναρξη της δίκης του σιδηροδρομικού δυστυχήματος των Τεμπών, στο συνεδριακό κέντρο «Γαιόπολις» του Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλίας, Λάρισα, 23 Μαρτίου 2026. |  | The Drug-Dealing Priests Case That Riveted GreeceIn a country where churches outnumber ATMs, police say a group of self-appointed “priests” quietly turned a small chapel in Athens into a drug den. The ring used code words such as “candle” for cocaine, “fanouropita” for raw cannabis, and shuttled drugs between Athens and Rhodes. One suspect, a former model and YouTuber, styled himself as an “archbishop.” Eight people now face charges |
 | Farmers United and OutragedFor all of Greece’s pride in its produce, the country’s agricultural backbone is in existential crisis. Years of weather disasters, the devastating sheep and goat pox outbreak, and the OPEKEPE subsidy scandal have pushed producers to the brink. Farmers staged a day of unrest in Athens and Thessaloniki, warning that without immediate compensation and credible support, rural Greece is running out of road. |
 | It’s the Economy…stillEven as Greece inks headline-grabbing energy deals, the reality for most households remains stubbornly unchanged. Eurostat data place the country second-to-last in EU median wages, just ahead of Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the shadow economy still accounts for roughly 18% of GDP, sustained by cash-heavy transactions, underreported earnings and inventive bookkeeping, a parallel system that quietly erodes tax revenues and trust |
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  Spain in AthensIn our 10th episode of The Ambassadors Series, Spanish Ambassador Jorge Domecq talks trade, tourism and why Greece and Spain should act like energy siblings, not rivals. With a third of U.S. gas entering Europe via Spain and 10% via Greece, he argues the two countries should “do much more together” on energy. |
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PODCAST Conflict in the Mideast – The View From GreeceThe “sirens of war” again erupted in the Middle East on the last day of February, last month, with the coordinated and large-scale US and Israeli strikes against Iran, followed by the latter’s retaliation across the wider region.  | | LISTEN |
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Out and About Here’s what caught our eye this week across a city that always finds room for art, music, and small pleasures.  Greek Month in London’ Revisited at EMST - and a New ‘Sea GardenThis autumn, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) turns its third floor into a dialogue between past and present. One exhibition revisits “The Greek Month in London,” the landmark 1975 cultural program that helped introduce post-dictatorship Greek art to an international audience, revived now with archival material and works drawn from EMST’s collection. Alongside it, “Sea Garden,” the museum’s second open-call group exhibition, explores landscapes, ecology and the fragile thresholds where land meets sea. November Jazz and Autumn LeavesAthens’ venues lean into the season with a full lineup — from experimental duos at the Vorres Museum to a Chet Baker tribute at Jazzèt Café and the annual Jazz@Megaron series |  |
Cocktails After WorkFourteen bars — from classic haunts to newer experimenters — offer an easy excuse to start the weekend a little early. |  |
Maria Callas MuseumA month of talks, performances and family events celebrates the soprano’s legacy across music, design and stage history |  |
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FOR WHEREVER YOU ARE  | Read Book recommendation |
Since everyone is talking about the arrival of Kimberly Guilfoyle, pick up Far and Beloved: U.S. Ambassadors in Greece. It’s a brisk look at eight decades of diplomacy, personalities and the delicate choreography of the US-Greece relationship. |
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Greek music legend Dionysis Savvopoulos is being celebrated posthumously with The Rock of Our Future: a tribute album featuring leading Greek artists and two rare original recordings from Savvopoulos himself |
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Guess the Spot  Where is this temple located: |
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 Browse on Sunday However, you spend the weekend — out late or reading early — don’t miss Sunday’s print edition. In our English language pages, you will find an interview with renowned sculptor Costas Varotsos, as well as a conversation with the director of the innovative wordless, sound-driven Cow | Deer, now on at the Greek National Theatre. |
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BEFORE YOU GO |
