Outgoing US President Barack Obama cancelled his planned speech in the open space of Pnyka, officially due to upcoming bad weather front. The speech was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, November 16th 2016. Unofficially the reasons are rather of “security” as Pnyka at the feet of Acropolis is an open space and most likely the security staff of Obama saw security issues.
It is quite interesting that Obama’s security staff had not seek the meteorologists’ advice before agreeing to the Greek proposal of Pnyka.
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Pnyka (Pnyx) is a hill opposite the Acropolis. Beginning as early as 507 BC, the Athenians gathered on the Pnyx to host their popular assemblies.
Many in Greece consider the throwing of a hand grenade in the French Embassy opposite the Parliament on Friday as the real reason the plans change.
Now, Greek and Americans are seeking a new spot “equally emblematic”.
Several Greek media report now that the new place from where Obama will address the Greeks is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and that both the Foundation management and the police have been notified of additional security measures.
However, the Foundation has no symbolic character in Athens.
I am tempted to write a post “10 emblematic places in Athens for Barack Obama to address the Greeks.” Unfortunately, I have no time right now to do so.
PS the Athens weather report forecast for Nov 16th: few clouds and smog in the morning – so probably the live stream crew would have problems…
