The British are in favor of the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens
Author: Thanasis Gabos
The majority of the British people are still in favor of the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens, according to a new publication.
YouGov asked 7,717 adults in Britain on Tuesday to answer the question “where do you think the Parthenon Marbles belong”.
“In Greece” answered 59% of them, “in Britain” only 18% and 22% did not answer.
In all the individual categories of the respondents, ie by religion, gender, political beliefs, age and social class, the return to Greece is the prevailing view.
Indicatively, 49% of the Conservative Party voters answer “Greece” to the question compared to 28% who answer “Britain”. The corresponding percentages among the voters of the Labor Party are 73% against 11%.
At the same time, the Guardian newspaper reveals a reply letter from 2012 of the then mayor of London Boris Johnson to a New Democracy official in Ilia, in which the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom wrote that “in an ideal world it is safe to say that the Parthenon marbles . they would never have moved away from the Acropolis “.
To Mr. George Hinou’s appeal, however, for the return of the Sculptures from the British Museum to mean the touch of the Olympic Flame for the London Games, Mr. Johnson had responded in the negative.
As he explained, in his view, the departure of the sculptures from the British Museum after more than 250 years was a “serious and incurable loss”.
Boris Johnson concluded: “As much as I understand the argument for rehabilitation in Athens, I feel that in the end I have to defend the interests of London.”