ATHENS — A clear picture of the situation will emerge in a week's time and a debate on when the lockdown should be eased and the market reopen will then begin, Development and Investments Minister Adonis Georgiadis said in an interview with SKAI television on Monday.

"The decision for a partial and gradual lifting of the lockdown will not be taken by the government alone but in collaboration with the committee of epidemiologists, studying the medical data. We have to first measure the pandemic's course," he said, noting that the development ministry will be ready for all possible outcomes.

He underlined that the government's aim was to open the market in December, stressing that "it will be a terrible catastrophe" if the cases did not come down and the market did not open.

For this reason, he added, the insistence of the political parties on holding a march for November 17 was "irrational" since this would lead to an increase in cases.

"Who will assume responsibility for the shops that are ruined, for the employees that lose their jobs?…the parties of the Left cannot pretend not to see [the concerns of the market] and remain indifferent in order to mount an opposition to Kyriakos Mitsotakis," he added.