The law banning hirings in municipalities should be repealed, Athens Mayor Haris Doukas told Skai TV on Thursday, adding that necessary and emergency services cannot be provided for lack of adequate staff.
“Greece finished with the memorandums, but we cannot hire people. This means that while quite a few staff members leave, we cannot hire new ones. We thus have to resort to short-term contracts. Also, if someone’s contractor’s contract runs out, we cannot renew it,” Doukas said, forcing cities to restort to courts with the danger of being fined.
This is an issue of the entire membership of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE), he added.
Doukas provided an example apropos of the rain on Thursday. “Right now, 20% of streets in Athens have drainage shafts, and the European average is 40%. We conducted a study and said that in order to raise them from 20% to 40% – the European average and a factor of security […] – we need 100 million euros. So far, we have found 1 million euros for 700 meters in Rizoupoli, an antiflood project of critical importance, and we are struggling to find another 1 million euros for Kolonos, which is also a very critical point,” the mayor of Athens said.
Panathinaikos stadium
The mayor also spoke about the controversy of Vassilissis Olgas Street, by Zappeion Hall, and he said the street was never meant to become a walkway by the previous administration, but a mild-traffic street used privately. “Only a few would be able to enter – to play tennis on one end, and some to drink coffee at the Aegli cafe on the other,” he explained. His administration “extended the walkways greatly to allow people to walk to Zappeion Hall, to turn the street into a multi-use one. There are two through-ways, for the tram and trolleys, and instead of its becoming a private road, everyone will be able to use it.” The issue, he said, has dragged on for 6 years after a lot of money, creating traffic congestions.
As for the Votanikos neighborhood of Athens and the Panathinaikos FC stadium, the Athens mayor said it is moving ahead speedily and that the wooden piles needed to start on the foundation will be installed shortly. “It is a large project, it is surrounded by infrastructure. Remember, it has land expropriations, roads, vacant fields. It is a project that overall, private and public, costs over 500 milion euros, an urban renewal project that has not been seen in Athens for very many decades.”
