Eleni Stamatoukou
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aheleni.bsky.social
Eleni Stamatoukou
@aheleni.bsky.social
(Data)Journalist | Greece Correspondent at Balkan Insight| Lede Programme alumni | Main Interests: Balkans, Cultural Heritage, Organised Crime, Human Rights, Corruption, Environment, Health, Media + Music | Posts in English & Greek | Posts are my own |
🚂 The people spoke — and won!
Thanks to #ELLET, and the assembly of the Technical Chamber of #Greece, the plan now includes a study to reopen the #Peloponneserailway, not just a bike path.
✌️ A first victory for the #train’s return!
balkaninsight.com/2025/11/06/g...
Greeks Hope to Ride Abandoned Scenic Railway Once Again
A Greek-Swiss initiative seeks to reopen the historic Peloponnese Railway to boost tourism and generate income for locals – but is the project really practical?
balkaninsight.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM
🚂 Οι πολίτες μίλησαν — και πέτυχαν!
Χάρη στην κινητοποίηση της κοινωνίας και της #ΕΛΛΕΤ, το #ΤΕΕ πρόσθεσε μελέτη για την επαναλειτουργία του σιδηροδρόμου Πελοποννήσου στον διαγωνισμό που προέβλεπε μόνο ποδηλατόδρομο.
✌️ Μια πρώτη νίκη για όσους πιστεύουν ότι ο #σιδηρόδρομος αξίζει δεύτερη ευκαιρία!
Greeks Hope to Ride Abandoned Scenic Railway Once Again
A Greek-Swiss initiative seeks to reopen the historic Peloponnese Railway to boost tourism and generate income for locals – but is the project really practical?
balkaninsight.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:56 PM
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balkaninsight.com
October 29, 2025 at 8:30 AM
#GreekPolice have dismantled a large-scale criminal organization exploiting #EUagriculturalfunds. The group falsely registered undeclared agricultural plots and pastures, often through third parties, to claim subsidies.

balkaninsight.com/2025/10/23/g...
Greek Police Reveal EU Agricultural Subsidy Fraud Network’s Scam System
After arresting 37 people all over the country, police explained how an organised crime group staged a sophisticated fraud to illegally obtain millions of euros in EU agricultural subsidies.
balkaninsight.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:53 AM
💉Greek #farmers urge #vaccination as #SheepPox spreads

🐐🐑Over 327,000 animals culled.

🇬🇷 #Athens resists EU-backed vaccination, citing #trade limits — and no EU country has yet tested a sheeppox vaccine.

#Greece

balkaninsight.com/2025/10/20/g...
Greek Farmers Demand Sheeppox Vaccine Amid ‘Devastating’ Livestock Cull
Hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats have been culled in Greece in a bid to halt the spread of a pox outbreak, devastating the livestock industry; despite EU recommendations, the government is ref...
balkaninsight.com
October 20, 2025 at 7:58 AM
The Greek parliament on Thursday passed a controversial labour bill allowing the working day to be extended up to 13 hours, despite opposition from unions, who went on a 24-hour strike this week, arguing that the legislation legalises "overexploitation".

balkaninsight.com/2025/10/14/g...
Greeks Strike Over Bill Allowing 13-Hour Working Day
Unions say new bill allowing more flexible working hours will, in effect, abolish the traditional eight-hour working day – and worsen the exploitation of workers.
balkaninsight.com
October 16, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Public and private-sector workers, labour federations and unions in #Greece went on a 24-hour #strike demanding the withdrawal of a new bill that allows for a 13-hour working day. Protests were also organised in #Athens and #Thessaloniki, in northern Greece.

balkaninsight.com/2025/10/14/g...
Greeks Strike Over Bill Allowing 13-Hour Working Day
Unions say new bill allowing more flexible working hours will, in effect, abolish the traditional eight-hour working day – and worsen the exploitation of workers.
balkaninsight.com
October 14, 2025 at 2:02 PM
For 23 days, #PanosRuci went on #hungerstrike outside the Greek Parliament, demanding truth for his son lost in the 2023 #Tempi #traincrash.

On Oct 7, he won — the case will reopen.
“We won a battle… but we have a long way to go.”

#Greece

balkaninsight.com/2025/10/10/u...
‘Until the End’: Bereaved Greek Father Forces State U-Turn on Tempi Tragedy
A 23-day hunger strike by a Greek man who lost his son to the 2023 Tempi train crash in Greece has forced an apparent U-turn by authorities on the issue of toxicology tests on the 57 people who died.
balkaninsight.com
October 10, 2025 at 8:54 AM
Reposted by Eleni Stamatoukou
🚨Hollywood producer Robert Simonds of STX Entertainment, together with a group of 🇺🇸US private investors, has taken over #spyware vendor NSO Group to “save it from debt and help rescue it from the US Dept. of Commerce’s blacklisting,” 🇮🇱 business outlet Globes reports.
www.globes.co.il/news/article...
חוב של מאות מיליונים נמחק: הניסיון החדש להציל את NSO | בלעדי
 
www.globes.co.il
October 9, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Police said on Thursday that they have dismantled a criminal gang which specialised in trafficking Nepalese men to be exploited for agricultural labour in #Greece.

#Greekpolice #humantrafficking

Read more:
balkaninsight.com/2025/10/09/g...
Greece Busts Human Traffickers for Exploiting Nepalese Migrant Workers
Greek police busted a Pakistani human trafficking group exploiting Nepalese agricultural migrant workers who were allegedly forced into debt, given exhausting tasks, threatened and sometimes physicall...
balkaninsight.com
October 9, 2025 at 12:11 PM
#AlexisTsipras’s resignation coincides with the imminent appearance of his new book. Greek commentators are more interested in what he will do next. But they are in no doubt that his departure is a major blow for the Greek left-wing party of #SYRIZA.

balkaninsight.com/2025/10/08/g...
Greece’s Leftist Ex-PM Alexis Tsipras Leaps into Political Unknown
The resignation of former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras as an MP with the SYRIZA party delivered a heavy blow to the left-wing force he once led - and opened the way for him to set up his own pa...
balkaninsight.com
October 8, 2025 at 7:05 AM
1/2 27 Greek citizens who participated in the #GlobalSumudFlotilla aid mission to #Gaza that was intercepted by the Israeli navy last week "safely arrived in Athens” after being deported on a flight on Monday, said the Greek Foreign Ministry.
October 6, 2025 at 3:27 PM
1/2 #AlexisTsipras, Greek MP, former prime minister and ex-leader of the left-wing #SYRIZA party, submitted his resignation as a SYRIZA MP on Monday in a letter to the parliament speaker – although he is not quitting politics or leaving the party itself.

#Greece #GreekParliament
Endless Turmoil Threatens Greece’s SYRIZA Party With Extinction
The left-wing party remains the main opposition force in the Greek parliament – but serial battles over policy and leadership and an ongoing identity crisis are pushing it towards oblivion, experts wa...
balkaninsight.com
October 6, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Greek, Turkish, Serbian and Bulgarian citizens are among the activists who have been detained by the Israeli Navy following its raid on vessels participating in the #globalsumudflotilla, which was transporting #humanitarianaid to #Gaza. After being detained, they are expected to be deported.
Balkan Activists Detained as Israel Intercepts Gaza Aid Flotilla
Activists from several Balkan countries have been detained as Israeli forces raided the Global Sumud Flotilla, a convoy of vessels which was trying to deliver humanitarian aid to war-ravaged Gaza.
balkaninsight.com
October 2, 2025 at 12:05 PM
"Ούτε αυτή τη φορά προηγήθηκε ένας αυστηρός και ανεξάρτητος έλεγχος για το αν τα εισοδήματα και τα περιουσιακά στοιχεία των πολιτικών είναι πράγματι αυτά που δηλώνουν, όπως δεν έχει γίνει ουσιαστικός έλεγχος για τον τρόπο κτήσης τους."

www.lifo.gr/stiles/optik...
Της Βασιλικής Σιούτη | LiFO
Το πόθεν έσχες των πολιτικών ως λαϊκό ανάγνωσμα αντί για εργαλείο διαφάνειας και λογοδοσίας.
www.lifo.gr
September 30, 2025 at 8:24 AM
1/3 🇬🇷⚡️Greeks demand transparency on wildfire causes!

🔍 At Balkan Insight - BIRN, we investigated why Greece faces devastating fires every year.

👉 Experts say it’s not just climate change — but lack of prevention and abandonment of rural areas, once guarded by locals.
Finding the Spark: Greeks Demand Probe Into Causes of Wildfires
After another destructive fire season, experts and activists say that unless Greece starts investigating what’s starting these blazes, it will never be able to prevent them.
balkaninsight.com
September 26, 2025 at 8:13 AM
📍November 16, 1916: HMHS Britannic, the “sister ship” of the Titanic, sank off the coast of Kea after striking a German mine.

🔎 May 6–13, 2025: For the first time, artifacts were recovered from the historic wreck, at a depth of over 120 meters.

#Britannic #Shipwreck #History #Kea
September 16, 2025 at 7:36 AM
A court in #Greece on Monday found two former protected witnesses – who claimed ten politicians were bribed by the Swiss global healthcare company #Novartis, including two former prime ministers – guilty of false accusation and repeated false testimony.

balkaninsight.com/2025/09/15/g...
Greek Court Convicts Novartis ‘Whistleblowers’ of False Testimony
After court finds two former protected witnesses in the Novartis case guilty of false accusation and false testimony against several politicians, former prime minister demands to know who 'orchestrate...
balkaninsight.com
September 15, 2025 at 12:48 PM
The Greek Anti-Money Laundering Authority ordered the freezing of the assets of former New Democracy member Kalliopi Sermetzidou, who, along with her partner and two relatives, allegedly misused EU agricultural subsidies of around 2.6 million euros.

balkaninsight.com/2025/07/17/f...
Fake Farmers: Greek EU Aid Scam Highlights Scourge of ‘Clientelism’
Millions of euros in EU subsidies were paid out to Greeks who fraudulently declared pastureland, but while state complicity is clear, the government looks unlikely to fall.
balkaninsight.com
September 15, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Reposted by Eleni Stamatoukou
ΠΑΓΝΗ: Κατέρρευσε ψευδοροφή στην καρδιολογική κλινική - Τραυματίστηκε ασθενής στο κεφάλι
ΠΑΓΝΗ: Κατέρρευσε ψευδοροφή στην καρδιολογική κλινική - Τραυματίστηκε ασθενής στο κεφάλι
Σύμφωνα με το νοσοκομείο, ο ασθενής βρίσκεται σε καλή κλινική κατάσταση, αλλά για προληπτικούς λόγους υποβλήθηκε σε αξονική τομογραφία εγκεφάλου
www.skai.gr
September 9, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Η πολύκροτη δίκη για την τραγωδία των Τεμπών αναμένεται, εκτός απροόπτου να ξεκινήσει την άνοιξη του 2026, ενώ 10 γενικοί γραμματείς του υπουργείου Μεταφορών μαζί με τον Κ. Καραμανλή, θα κριθούν από το Δικαστικό Συμβούλιο ίσως νωρίτερα από τη δίκη.

www.tovima.gr/2025/09/09/d...
Πότε ξεκινάει η δίκη για τα Τέμπη, ο φάκελος των 60.000 σελίδων, ποιοι θα λογοδοτήσουν | ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ
Εστάλη ο φάκελος στον Άρειο Πάγο - Δισέλιδο το έγγραφο του ανακριτή, δεν αναφέρει αδικήματα - 10 γενικοί γραμματείς του υπουργείου Μεταφορών θα κριθούν από το Δικαστικό Συμβούλιο
www.tovima.gr
September 9, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Fugitive oligarch #VladimirPlahotniuc will be extradited from Greece to Moldova, but timing is everything. His lawyer accuses Chisinau of delaying until just before the Sept 28 elections to score points.

#greece #moldova #russia

balkaninsight.com/2025/09/08/f...
Fugitive Moldovan Oligarch’s Extradition From Greece Faces Delays
Greece has confirmed it intends to extradite Vladimir Plahotniuc back to Moldova – but no date for the transfer has been set, amid claims that Moldova's authorities are playing politics with the timin...
balkaninsight.com
September 8, 2025 at 4:47 PM
#Greece’s parliament approved a bill toughening the measures for rejected #asylumseekers. The bill has been however criticised by opposition and #humanrights organisations as abusive and #racist.

#migration

balkaninsight.com/2025/09/03/g...
Greece Passes Law Potentially Jailing Rejected Asylum Seekers
Tough new bill introducing fines and prison terms for illegal migrants draws condemnation from opposition parties and human rights organisations.
balkaninsight.com
September 3, 2025 at 1:55 PM
#Greekpolice investigated 6,354 tax identification numbers, of which 1,036 were identified as having illegally received EU agricultural subsidies amounting to 22.7 million euros over the period 2019 to 2024.

#farming #Greece #eusubsidies

balkaninsight.com/2025/09/02/g...
Greek Police Say Millions of Euros Taken in EU Farming Funds Fraud
Minister says Greek police investigation shows 1,036 claimants falsely obtained EU agricultural subsidies worth 22.7 million euros from 2019 to 2024.
balkaninsight.com
September 2, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Despite opposition from students and academics, 4 branches of foreign universities have received operating licenses in #Greece, marking the first wave of establishment of #nonstateuniversities in the country, Greek education officials announced today.

balkaninsight.com/2024/02/13/m...
‘McDonald’s vs. KFC’: Greek Bill to Allow Private Universities Stirs Anger
A government bill in Greece to allow the creation of private universities faces stiff resistance among university students and staff.
balkaninsight.com
August 29, 2025 at 10:43 AM