Thessaloniki, Greece, Nov 5 (AFP/APP):Giannis Sariannidis, a 37-year-old Greek trader, does not believe there’s a pandemic. He’s so furious with restrictions that he pulled his son out of school. Then he got arrested.
Like thousands of Covid deniers in Greece, especially in the north, he opposes government rules on masks and tests, at all costs.
“There is no pandemic,” he insists, branding as “genocide” requirements that his eight-year-old son submit to self-testing twice a week and mask-up at school because Greece currently offers no vaccinations to children under 12.
In northern Greece, vaccination rates in some areas are lower than 50 percent, compared to national average of 63 percent, and doctors say hospital ICU units have reached capacity.
Teachers, doctors and nurses have been hit with lawsuits from untrusting members of the public and infection rates are growing.
Yet Sariannidis is unrepentant. “We have nothing to fear. It is an inalienable right of every citizen on earth to be free. The wealth and land belong to us,” he tells AFP from the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Last month, he was arrested after causing a commotion at his child’s school over Covid rules and sentenced to 15 months in prison with a three-year suspension. In court, he told judges that he did not recognize their authority.
While anti-vax sentiment spans the world, in Greece observers say it is strongest in the north, traditionally considered a heartland of fervent nationalists and religious hardliners susceptible to conspiracy theories.