Following a series of Greek interventions, including at prime ministerial level, the decision to end Deutsche Welle's (DW) historic Greek Programme on 1 January 2027 has been reversed.
DW's Broadcasting Council decided on Friday to continue the operation of its Greek Programme, overturning a decision made last February that had provided for closing the Greek service at the start of 2027, after 62 years in operation.
According to reports, the decision was taken unanimously by the council's members, following a series of interventions from Athens in favour of retaining the Greek programme, including from Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had raised the issue with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
DW is closely tied to modern Greek history, particularly the struggle against the dictatorship. During the junta years, the Greek broadcast, transmitted from Cologne, was one of the few independent sources of free information for millions of Greeks, broadcasting news, political commentary, interviews and music by artists banned by the regime.
According to reports, after the Greek prime minister raised the future of the Greek Programme with the Chancellor, a series of contacts followed between officials from New Democracy and Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), particularly at the German party's congress in February, where MPs Tasos Chatzivasileiou and Filippos Fortomas travelled to Germany and raised the issue with all their counterparts there.
The Greek effort continued through the European People's Party, where Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou was primarily active in ensuring regular contacts with the CDU.
In this context, the Greek side also built alliances with key figures who played a particularly important role in spreading the message in favour of continuing the Greek Programme, including Thomas Rachel, head of the Greek-German Friendship Group in the German parliament, Marian Wendt, former director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Athens, Metropolitan Augoustinos of Germany, and Fedon Kotsampopoulos, President of the German-Greek Business Association.
Source: AMNA
