Sixty-two years of history did not end with a single signature. After a series of Greek interventions, even at the level of the Prime Minister, the decision that envisaged the termination of Deutsche Welle ‘s historic Greek program was overturned.
The German broadcaster’s broadcasting council decided on Friday to continue its operation, canceling the decision of last February, which set the closure of the Greek service at the beginning of 2027. According to information, the new decision was made unanimously .
This was preceded by an intensive effort on the part of Athens, with the highlight being the intervention of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis , who raised the issue directly with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz .
The significance of this rescue is not only emotional. DW is inextricably linked to the recent history of Greece and especially to the anti-dictatorship struggle . During the dictatorship, the Greek Broadcasting Service , which broadcast from Cologne, was one of the few independent sources of free information for millions of Greeks, broadcasting news, political commentary, interviews, but also musical works by artists banned by the junta . For an entire generation, that frequency was not just a radio station. It was a window to the free world.
The path to the reversal of the decision was systematic. After the prime minister raised the issue with the chancellor, a series of contacts followed between New Democracy and Christian Democrats executives, particularly at the German party’s conference in February, where MPs Tasos Hadjivassiliou and Philippos Fortomas traveled to Germany and raised the issue with all their interlocutors.
The effort continued through the European People’s Party , led by Deputy Foreign Minister Tassos Hadjivassiliou, so that regular attacks were made on the CDU.
However, alliances with key figures who contributed to the dissemination of the message also proved decisive. Among them were the head of the Greek-German friendship group in the German Parliament, Thomas Rachel , the former director of the Adenauer Foundation in Athens, Marianne Wendt , the Metropolitan of Germany, Mr. Augustine , and the president of the German-Hellenic Business Association , Phaedon Kotsambopoulos .
The result shows something that is often underestimated. A decision to cut funding to a foreign public institution seems, at first, irreversible. But when diplomacy moves at all levels simultaneously, from the chancellor to the associations and the Church, decisions can change. And in this particular case, a piece of Greek memory was saved with them.
