Anxiety is at its peak for the largest Greek language school outside of Greece as the extension of the lease for another 5 years was not signed on the expected date of the end of July 2023
Anxiety is peaking for the largest Greek-language school outside of Greece. What will happen to the building? Why this obstruction of a Bavarian-subsidized school? What happened on March 25 in the packed Salvatorkirche church in Munich is unprecedented in the annals of Hellenism in Munich, the city with the most Greeks in Germany. Immediately after the doxology of the standing Metropolitan of Germany Augustinos the word was given to the Consul General of the city, Mr. Vassilis Goulousis, for the established celebration. But he didn’t make it. Someone from the congregation spontaneously took the floor. It wasn’t planned. It was more of an outburst of anxiety from a parent of “Aristotelis” Primary School for the future of the building where it is housed. “Our Metropolitan was next to the priest Petros and the Consul, he listened to what I was saying, watched me carefully, shook his head and did not interrupt even once,” Andreas Papastergios, a member of the “Aristotles” after-school guard, tells Deutsche Welle. . “He was raising his head, looking at me and looking worried.”
But what exactly did the Greek parent, himself a graduate of a Greek school in Nuremberg, who studied Computer Science at a Greek university, say? “I told him that he has no right to speak in the Hellenism of Munich, he has no right to play with Greek language education, he has no right to give a negative suggestion regarding the lease contract of the building where the 4th Elementary and 1st Gymnasium of Munich is housed” Aristotle”. To give a negative recommendation about his house where he lives here in Munich at the expense of the Greek public. He cannot speak in church and speak in front of the same children who protested with us outside the Consulate”. Moments of awkwardness followed, and then the crowd erupted into applause. And when the Consul began to speak, half of them left the church.
One bad guy is coming
Everyone will reasonably wonder how the respective Consul can handle a matter of competence of the Ministry of Education. The right arises from the Joint Ministerial Decision of the Ministry of Education and Finance (No. Φ400.11140041.1B from 7.2.2003). In article 7, it states that the Head of the Diplomatic Authority, in this case the Consul General of Munich, is responsible for school buildings and lease contracts. Many colleagues of the current Consul General passed from this position. No one thought to give a negative suggestion for the extension of the lease contract of the school in question, which is subsidized – and this is crucial – 90% by the Bavarian public, unlike all Greek schools in Germany. But a thousand evils follow. Because the Consular Authority was not in compliance with its contractual obligations. He did not come to sign the extension of the lease for another 5 years on the intended date of the end of July 2023. But in the following months he continued the same tactics despite the constant harassment of the Education Coordinating Office, the Parents and Guardians Association of “Aristotles” and the anxiety of parents and guardians of a school, which is the largest Greek language school abroad in the world. “Why all at the last minute?” wonders Iro Kostraki, president of the Association of Parents and Guardians of schools in Munich and its surroundings, “these are not serious matters”. “In Germany, things don’t work like that,” says Andreas Papastergios angrily. The result was that the owner asked for a large rent increase, “predatory”, as the Greek side described it, for a 5,000 sq m building and school specifications. The Greek side refuses to accept it. The possibility that from the middle of 2025 around 890 children will be left without school accommodation in an extremely difficult and expensive real estate market in Munich is real and has mobilized parents, who protested outside the Consulate, contacted the Ministry of Education , while questions were also asked in the Parliament. So the Ministry of Education instructed to start negotiations with the owner.
Until this very moment when the article is being written, time is consumed in endless discussions, exchanges of letters and phone calls, proposals and counter-proposals between the German lessor-owner Mr. Ulrich, the Greek lawyer from Munich Mr. Konstantinos Androulakis, the Consul General and two of his representatives Ministry of Education. There seems to have been some convergence on the “predatory” rent demanded by the landlord, but justified in the Munich real estate market. However, there is confusion regarding the deadline for termination of the contract and the redetermination of the operating and maintenance costs of the lease. Deutsche Welle is not in a position to know whether there is still room for further negotiations. What was informed, however, is that an order has been given to the Consul General and the Coordinating Office of Education in Munich to look for other buildings that meet the school needs of “Aristotle” and are more economical. And the question arises: Why did the consular authority not renew the contract in time to avoid the rent increase? How is it so certain that another building will be found which meets the strict specifications of housing a school in a city where the rents, as the Consul-General is well aware, are the highest in Germany? Or is it a maneuver in order to close the school and merge with others, as was done last year with the 2nd Primary “Pythagoras”?
Are Greek politicians avoiding Munich?
The uncertainty about the fate of the building, which grows with the passing of the months, the lack of information, the disparaging behavior of the Consul, as at least the parents complain, has enraged a large part of Munich’s Hellenism, which did not go unnoticed in Athens. In their planned visits to Germany for information about the postal vote, both the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for Hellenism Abroad Mr. Kotsiras, as well as Mrs. Kerameos, Minister of the Interior, they avoided speaking in the Hellenism of the city. “Someone apparently informed them that they would face reactions in Munich,” speculates Vassilis Karamagiolis, member of the Board of Parents and Guardians of “Aristotelis” High School. Mrs. Maria Baku, president of the “Aristotelis” Afterschool Care Association, which employs children after school hours, a program also subsidized by Bavaria, decided to go to Stuttgart and meet Ms. Kerameos. “We explained to her how things are, we thought that she does not know everything, even though she was the Minister of Education when the 2nd Primary School “Pythagoras” was closed last summer. She told us that what she will be able to do is to talk to the relevant Deputy Minister .And when we got to the point of telling her that it is the Consul who gave the negative recommendation, she told us that it is a problem. When we asked her what she meant, she said that the negative recommendation cannot be bypassed that easily even if the face”.
The climate in Munich for the State ahead of the European elections is conveyed to us as heavy. “There is no climate for elections” Andreas Papastergios told us. “There is dissatisfaction, even if I refer to my own family circle, but also to the friendly one, because we talk to many parents at school, I know parents who this time in the European elections will not cast a vote in the ruling party, because they know that it is the government that behaves as if it wants to close the school, it does not respect the struggle that the immigrants did to keep Hellenism, the Greek language and culture alive. In a few years the Greeks won’t even know how to read the names on the postal vote!”. The registration for next year of over 40 children in the 1st Primary School at “Aristotelis” despite the complete uncertainty in the building is an indisputable vote of confidence from the parents in school. “This school is gaining more importance now than in the past, because it leaves open all the possibilities, when one knows how to use them properly,” said Mrs. Lisa Ober, a teacher at “Aristotelis” from 1981 until last year. “To those who are undecided whether to stay or return to Greece, to those who will return, but also to those who want to choose professional training. What they have not succeeded in so far is to recognize the Greek baccalaureate as equal to the German Abitur, as the French school in Munich has done, and to allow the children to study at the German university”.
Movements and stability
So here’s an issue he’ll have to deal with once the Ministry of Education and its new ambitious leadership. Before that he will have to investigate the legality of the Joint Ministerial Decision, which we have seen is signed by the finance and education ministers, but not by the foreign minister. On whose behalf is the Consul General of Munich negotiating the building? By order of other ministries? Can Greek language education in Germany depend on the good (or bad) mood of each Consul? The Hellenism of Munich is anxious and angry about the attitude of the State. “We are in the dark, there are rumours, but no commitment on the ground for so many months now about a school subsidized by the Germans,” says Ms Kostraki. “We don’t care if we stay in this building or the one next door, we want stability for the Greek children, we don’t have to move for more than two years”.
We asked the Consul General to take a position on all of these but he informed us through his secretary that he is incompetent. His successor is expected soon. Maybe it will be the final solution so that the same scenes do not have to take place next year on March 25, in the Salvatorkirche church…
Source: Skai
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