An impressive increase of households with the Greek flag on thier balcony has been recorded after the signing of the Prespes Agreement between Greece and North Macedonia and its adoption by the Parliament.
This is the result of a survey conducted by Professor of Political Science at the European University Institute in Florence and Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at Oxford University, Elias Dinas.
The survey was conducted in Athens between January 24 and February 4, 2019.
Dinas and his team consisting of two post-graduate candidates recorded the number of flags hoisted on balconies in 314 random streets in Athens.
They then compared the data with these of two other periods (2008-2009 and 2014-2015) using data from Google Earth.What they found was that the increase in 2019 in relation to the two other periods was impressive.
As a measure of comparison, they used the city of Lisbon.
According to the data:
– In 2008-2009 in Athens there were an average of 0.31 flags per street and in Lisbon 0.44 flags
– In 2014-2015, the flags increased to 1.04 per street in Athens and 0.80 in Lisbon
– In 2019 there was an explosive increase of 2.27 flags per road in Athens and a significant decline in Lisbon by 0.14 flags per street.
According to Dinas, one of the conclusions that can be drawn is that the national identity remains active and can be activated in the face of a development that causes it.
