The former EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andrikaitis, himself Greek, earlier this year 'shamed' Greece's deputy health minister Pavlos Polakis for smoking in public, saying "He knows nothing of health!"
So common was the habit that a thick fog of cigarette smoke often hovered over the building's cafe, a few metres from the legislative chamber where deputies had once voted to ban smoking in all public spaces, including the 300-seat House.
Nine years, 10 months and 26 days after that ban came into effect, lawmakers are finally being forced to abide by it too.
"There's definitely been a change," said Dimitris Tarantsas, who has waited on MPs from behind the cafe's bench-top bar for the past 18 years. "The law, for the first time, is being upheld."
Comment: Good effort, Greece. You held out well. But there was only ever going to be one winner.
Onwards into the Glorious Clean Future!