Zelensky calls for decision to cover $38 billion deficit…

High above the seaside suburb of Athens, neatly stacked logs wait to be loaded into the trunks of cars. Due to rising energy prices in Greece, free distribution of firewood has been arranged for people.

“We really need it (…) especially in this difficult year”, says Yiannis Dimitrakopoulos, a 75-year-old retiree who came to collect wood in Klyfada, twenty kilometers from the center of the Greek capital. A short distance away, dozens of motorists wait patiently for their turn.

If winter temperatures are reasonable in this residential suburb of the Athenian “Riviera,” its citizens, like the rest of Greece, are reeling from the explosion of energy prices due to the war in Ukraine. In September, natural gas prices quadrupled (+332%) and many Greeks fear they won’t be able to heat themselves during the winter months. And to top it all off, six months later, inflation has topped 10% in a country reeling from the effects of a decade-long financial crisis.