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The first session of the Athens Stock Exchange after the five-week recess following the imposition of capital controls and the closing of the banks showed the dramatic situation of the Greek economy. A large number of requests for stock sales remain outstanding, while the prices of bank securities are hanging at the lowest acceptable level of -30%.

Today's development was expected, given that the opening of the stock exchange was postponed last week, precisely because of the jitters over the shares of the four systemic banks. This however didn't stand in the way of the Greek political elite embarking on their summer holidays, headed by the PM himself.

As early as Saturday, Alexis Tsipras went on a family holiday with his partner Peristera Batziana and their two children to Erikousa island in the Ionian Sea. The couple arrived in Corfu by plane and then made its way to Erikousa in a motorboat. The island is part of the Diapontia archipelago (the Othoni Islands), which includes a total of 11 larger and smaller islands. only three of them are inhabited: Othoni, Erikousa and Mathraki.

Photo: news4people.gr

For the time being, there is no photographic evidence of the short-lived, as government sources claim, vacation of Alexis Tsipras. He reportedly asked the local authorities to leave him without police protection.

Unlike the PM, Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis made the paparazzi sing for their supper, as far back as July 25th. He and his wife were intercepted by the lenses enjoying the seaside in a fancy beachfront hotel in Sounion - the end point of mainland Greece, with a view to the impressive Temple of Poseidon.

According to protothema.gr, room prices in their hotel stand between €165 and €470 per night, and "probably go beyond what former finance minister Yannis Varoufakis had in mind when immediately after the elections he announced that the Greeks should stick to a modest lifestyle".

Voutsis and his wife Angeliki Papazoglou, an aide at his ministry, went up to their room and soon after that headed to the beach. The hotel staff had earlier shown them the shortcut to the beach space specially allotted to hotel guests. The couple went back to Athens on the next day.

The publication argues that the home secretary's example of a short vacation near Athens is about to be followed by many of his colleagues in government, SYRIZA and parliament.

Meanwhile, former ministers and current New Democracy MPs Olga Kefaloyani and Kyriakos Mitsotakis left for a longer holiday on the Greek islands.

Former tourism minister Olga Kefaloyani was caught out walking in the colourful streets of the cosmopolitan Mykonos island. Her evening walk included some shopping and a few drinks in the company of friends. Kefaloyani has already spent several days on the island with her husband, as betrayed by her tan.

Her colleague from New Democracy and former minister of administrative reform, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is a known admirer of the dynamic sports. The camera lens caught him on a boat on Tinos island, where he is a relaxing with his three children.