Their sadness for the cutting of trees (poplars) that continues in the city of Thessaloniki was expressed today – once again – by members of the environmental group “SOS for the Trees” and ordinary citizens, who gathered in the Ancient Agora square, placing black posters on the cut trunks and leaving placards at the site, which read “here could have been a tree”.

“At a time when today in Thessaloniki each citizen corresponds to 1.6 square meters of greenery, when the World Health Organization sets the minimum limit at 9 square meters, the municipal authority of the city has planned the cutting of a total of 4,000 trees, without an autopsy and a technical report for each of them”, Eleni Ioannidou, a member of the environmental group “SOS for the Trees”, tells the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.

“The administration of the Municipality of Thessaloniki carries out a systematic deforestation, while with the karatomization/deep pruning of tens of thousands more trees, it actually causes them to rot and makes them more vulnerable to diseases and fungi”, she underlines, adding that “they are cutting with unabated intensity when they should proceed with the tree planting of about 4,000 empty tree stands in the city”.

Ms. Ioannidou notes that the municipality’s plan involves a total cutting of 4,000 trees in Thessaloniki’s Nea Paralia.

“They carry out their “criminal” plans, knowing that the injunctions filed by the environmental group will be heard on 2/5″, he adds.

Among other things, the participants in today’s action emphasized that there are tree trunks on all the streets of Thessaloniki, as a result of which the city is deformed and the environment is destroyed, and they announced that they will continue their mobilization with undiminished intensity.