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Victoria Mindova

The parties are the worst enemy of private initiative in Greece, said exclusively for GRReporter Konstandinos Tsakiroglou, chairman of the Federation of associations of funeral parlours owners. We asked the funeral agent to comment the decision of the socialist government for cancelling the restrictions in all sectors of economy from the beginning of July this year. "There are no restrictions in funeral parlours and anyone who would like to start a similar business could do it. There are other problems in our sector," said the chairman of the federation.

Another 130 jobs are already among the angry pharmacists, taxi drivers, even cosmeticians who will no longer benefit from guaranteed profit, limited number of licenses or other privileges. For now, only the owners of ritual homes not only do not oppose the economic liberalization, but support it as a major pattern for establishing a modern market economy. The crisis has affected their sector too, although they can hardly remain without work. Today, people prefer more modest ceremonies, which are inexpensive and bring much lower revenue to the funeral parlours. However, there are no signs of mass closure of funeral parlours, neither of shops and hotels, nor of other services in Greece.

One of the major difficulties for the funeral business in the country is the lack of graveplots in the country, especially in large urban centres. Konstandinos Tsakiroglou explained that the cemetery spaces are the property and the responsibility of municipal authorities in the regions. Overcrowding in certain regions of Greece in the last thirty years was not consistent with the parallel expansion of cemetery spaces. Today, many families are forced to move the relics of their buried relatives in small boxes, even a year or two after the funeral because the purchase of a graveplot in perpetuity is very expensive.

One solution, according to the funeral parlours, is a law to allow the establishment of private cemeteries that comply with the planning of the municipality, but their construction and maintenance does not depend on public funds. "Unfortunately, such a scenario is impossible in Greece. There is no political will to support the free economy and the private initiative," said Konstandinos Tsakiroglou, although the cooperation with local private entrepreneurs could solve the problem of unaffordable prices of the last home of the people in Greece.

Another problem is the ban on cremation of corpses in the past. The specialist said that a law is in force in the country now, allowing the construction of crematoria, but unfortunately it remains on paper. Currently, if a citizen in Greece prefers to be cremated after death there relatives have to take the body to Bulgaria. Then a complex procedure follows that requires much of documentation and high transport costs.  

"Cremation was allowed only a few years ago, but it can not be carried out in fact because the Greek Orthodox Church does not allow it. It is less costly to the family if it is carried out in the country, but since the priests refuse to read the burial service in cremation the people do not want to follow this procedure," explained Tsakiroglou. He believes the main reason for not carrying out cremation in Greece yet is because of prejudices laid down by the church. He said that currently only about 2 percent of dead Greeks wished to be cremated and their bodies had to be transported to the Bulgarian capital.

Local government organizations and municipal administrations are another obstacle for the construction of crematorium. "Nobody wants to face the veto of the church. Such a project requires major investment that has to return; otherwise it makes no sense to invest the money. While the Church forbids cremation in a peculiar way, people will continue to stay away from this ceremony, which is at a lower cost." According to the chairman of the federation, if a crematorium is ever built, it will be only in major urban areas like Athens, Piraeus and Thessaloniki, because in the country there are still deeply rooted superstitions associated with the church.