Bakoyannis: “The State itself is the biggest scammer in Greece”

The need for municipalities to acquire a greater degree of freedomautonomy and independence, in order to be able to take steps forward, the Mayor of Athens emphasized today Kostas Bakoyannis during his intervention at the Annual Regular Conference of KEDE in Volos, while pointing out the perennial causes of local self-governance’s ill will and delay in providing services to citizens.

“Even today we have a centralized and anachronistic model – We refuse to be patronized”

“2023 is our year, both for national and local elections. We are given the opportunity to do a review. Let’s talk openly and honestly. Because many times we get caught up in today and in our attempt to keep our municipalities standing against the tide, losing the possibility to think and plan for tomorrow”, said Mr. Bakoyiannis, pointing out that there are two main issues that arise: The financial and the institutional.

Especially regarding the institutional issue, the Mayor of Athens emphasized that in our country, after too many years, we insist on a centralized, an anachronistic model, which cannot continue: “A neo-Ottoman model that wants a hypertrophied, hydrocephalous state and the local government to be a follow-up. Or to put it another way, an unprotected child. But since we have known each other for many years, we refuse to be under guardianship. It doesn’t go any further, not only for us, but also for the people we serve.”

Regarding financial issues, Mr. Bakoyiannis emphasized: “Every now and then we turn to the state – father, with outstretched hand, and say “oh, great Sultan”, “oh, great Patisah”, give, please, and to us”. And it becomes an alisberisi. The same alisberisi, which we live today in our Congress. But, what do we desire? Degrees of freedom. Autonomy. Independence”.

“The Ministries are fools – They do not pay municipal fees to the Municipality of Athens”

The Mayor of Athens referred to specific examples, such as the transient resident fee, but also the city tax:

“The fee for transients could all be passed on to the self-government and we could determine it. Also, the city tax. Athens today has 650,000 permanent residents and serves 3.5 million people every day. But tell me, how does this equation work out? It’s very simple. We fail systematically”, he said and added:

“Do you know who is the biggest jerk today in Greece and in the Municipality of Athens? The State itself. The Ministries do not pay remuneration. They pay for electricity, water, telephone, but in the municipality they don’t pay for garbage or electricity. They don’t pay municipal fees!”

Mr. Bakoyiannis brought back the proposal to pass the ENFIA to the local government, while he did not fail to refer to “mines” such as the burial fee, which he said is “equivalent to ‘rolling down the blinds, locking the padlock and leaving'”.

Demonstrating the absurdity that exists when it comes to the issue of responsibilities between the State and the various levels of local government, he cited as an example Athenas Street: “I am personally ashamed that Athenas Street, which passes in front of the City Hall of the city of of Athens, is not the responsibility of the Municipality of Athens. As the Municipality of Athens, we do not have the right to designate parking spaces. What does this mean? That when the Minister of Citizen Protection doesn’t like the Mayor of Athens – I’m not saying this happens in my case obviously – they come and write and we can’t do anything. But that, if you think about it, is deeply offensive to all of us.”

“We don’t need a new Kapodistrias or Trikoupis, but real solutions to real unsolved problems”

The Mayor of Athens underlined that today the local government does not need reformers, such as the new Trikoupis or the new Kapodistrias, but substantial solutions: “We need real solutions to real problems, which have remained unresolved for many years”, he said and added: ” I was personally very pleased when I heard the Minister describe this mechanism for the 20,000 responsibilities. But until we get there, maybe we could start with the 50 basic ones that KEDE has already proposed?”, he characteristically said.

On the issue of bureaucracy, he pointed out that important steps have been taken, but noted that we still have a long way to go.

Mr. Bakoyiannis concluded by saying that today the local government is given a great opportunity for a new beginning: “Let’s turn the state upside down. But this first starts from a battle of mentality, which we can win because there is a very large and very powerful political capital in this room. We used to call it the “party of mayors”, the “party of self-government” – the title doesn’t matter. It is important to unite our forces and be able to stand up.”

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