By Despina Vlepakis

An alarm sounded yesterday in the press offices, when it became known that the meeting of the Minister of Defense Nikos Dendias with the Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas at the Ministry of National Defense, to determine the responsibilities for the monument to the Unknown Soldier. Of course, the four of four evolved into a war of announcements between the Ministry of Defense and the Municipality of Athens, with the last episode in the series, the announcement by Haris Doukas announcing an appeal by the Municipality of Athens to the courts for the amendment passed for the Unknown Soldier, raising the issue of unconstitutionality.

“Mr. Marinakis confirmed that with the well-known amendment, the responsibility of cleaning the Unknown Soldier belongs to the Ministry of National Defense and will be assigned to PRIVATE PEOPLE.

As is self-evident, the Municipality of Athens will appeal to the competent courts, based on Article 102 of the Constitution” says the Mayor of Athens.

It was preceded by the placement of the Government representative Pavlos Marinakis in a television show in which he clarified that there is no internal party issue with Mr. Dendias and emphasized that the entrustment of the cleaning to a private company is foreseen by the amendment.

“It is an honorable attempt by the opposition to create an issue with the more solid government majority and solid parliamentary confidence of the 2nd four-year government… There is no issue with Mr. Dendias. This is foreseen by the amendment (to give the cleaning to a private company). Operationally, the competent minister and the political leadership of the ministry as a whole will evaluate how they will put into practice everything that the amendment provides in relation to their own responsibilities”, noted Pavlos Marinakis in Action 24.

According to information at yesterday’s press conference, the Mayor of Athens reportedly clarified to the Minister of Defense that he would not object to keeping the area clean, but based on the amendment voted in Parliament, the responsibility for cleanliness was removed from the Municipality and his legal advisors point out that he cannot assume a responsibility that has been removed from the Municipality of Athens. The same legal circles appear vertical that if there is no change from the Government, the word “care” in the amendment does not allow the cleanliness of the Municipality to take action, as sources say.

Close collaborators of Haris Doukas note that the statements of the Prime Minister from the floor of the Parliament point in this direction, since Kyriakos Mitsotakis during the debate in the Plenary on the amendment, addressing Nikos Androulakis, criticized the management of the Municipality on the spot. “However, you mentioned, and I found it very interesting, the issue of this whole thing being done because a contractor has to go and clean the place. According to the written provisions, if we were to interpret the legislation as it stands today, who, Mr. Androulakis, is responsible for cleaning the area? The Mayor of Athens, Mr. Doukas, never cleaned the area. And he did not clear him because he wanted to play a political game. Now if he wanted to play a political game by making you the opposition or he wanted to play a political game because he sees himself as the new leader of the center-left, I don’t know,” noted the Prime Minister.

Everything shows that the communication between the environment of Dendia and Douka did not end at the meeting, otherwise how can it be explained that the initial announcements of the two sides were made almost simultaneously even though they were contradictory. Of course, the lines got tangled somewhere along the way until the midnight announcement of the Ministry of National Defense.

“Cleanliness under Article 102 of the Constitution is a local matter and belongs exclusively to the responsibility of the Municipal Authority. Alas if cleanliness fell under the Constitutional mission of the Armed Forces! Their mission is different.” said the Ministry of Health.

Charilaou Trikoupi, through the press representative, supports the Mayor of Athens, stressing that the amendment is unconstitutional and that is why PASOK submitted the petition of unconstitutionality which was rejected by the majority.

“We submitted an objection of unconstitutionality because article 102 of the Constitution stipulates that the Local Self-Government is responsible for local affairs. The amendment tabled by the government violates this constitutional provision, as it removes responsibility for the monument from the Municipality of Athens and transfers it to the Ministry of Defense. Therefore, the government removes statutory powers from the Local Government. Mr. Dendias because he obviously does not want to implement the amendment because he disagrees and tried – contrary to what is now foreseen – to reassign to the municipal authority of Athens the care of the monument, which was assigned to the Ministry of Defense by the amendment. However, the Ministry of Defense is now taking care of it, they put a “hat” on Mr. Dendias. This is clearly a sham government. Mr. Dendias wants to throw away the “smudge” that was thrown at him,” noted Kostas Tsoukalas in Action 24.