The letter signed by Akis Dimakopoulos, Vasilis Gonis, D. Koufontinas and N. Maziotis in support of hunger striker Aristotelis Hatzis.<\/p>\n
A peculiar alliance of \u201cextremists\u201d led by Mayor of Athens Charis Doukas is rushing to put an end to the organized redevelopment plan of the Attica Region for the Prosfigika area. <\/p>\n
Despite the government\u2019s efforts to put an end to illegal squatting, the former candidate for the leadership of the (otherwise centrist) PASOK has added his signature alongside those of Akis Dimakopoulos, Vasilis Gonis, Dimitris Koufontinas, and Nikos Maziotis, in an effort to perpetuate the squatting regime. <\/p>\n
A post by Pola Roupa, a member of the so-called Revolutionary Struggle, was along the same lines; after accusing the government and the Regional Authority of \u201clack of sensitivity\u201d on the refugee issue, calls for\u2026 \u201csocial resistance to the state\u2019s plans to murder our comrade Aristotelis Hantzis\u201d!<\/p>\n
In short, it chose to ask the Regional Authority to freeze the redevelopment that has already been decided upon, essentially yielding to pressure from the squatters, and legitimizes, even if indirectly, a state of illegality that has persisted for years. And all this for the sake of a few whose relationship with the law is\u2014at the very least\u2014problematic.<\/p>\n
Instead of defending the restoration of historic buildings and their return to the public (something for which he was elected), he chose to request a suspension of the redevelopment, maintaining the current status quo until further notice. Even greater backlash was sparked by the recognition of the \u201cProsfigika community\u201d as a negotiating partner.<\/p>\n
Conversely, the government and the Region of Attica insist that the redevelopment will proceed in accordance with the law, the protection of listed buildings, and the public interest. They argue that public spaces cannot be defined by fait accompli nor remain occupied indefinitely, and that social policies must be implemented within the framework of the law, not at its expense.<\/p>\n
With votes from Zachariadis<\/b><\/p>\n
It all began when the mayor brought a proposal to a vote in the Athens City Council asking the government and the Region of Attica to suspend the implementation of the regeneration contract so that Aristotelis Hatzis would end his hunger strike. <\/p>\n
The resolution was approved exclusively by the faction led by Haris Doukas and Kostas Zachariadis\u2019s \u201cOpen City\u201d faction. At the same time, while unequivocally condemning the attack on Nikos Hardalias\u2019s home, it called for the initiation of a dialogue between the government, the Regional Authority, the municipality, and the community of Prosfigika, with the aim of finding a mutually acceptable solution.
This was preceded by a letter signed by Akis Dimakopoulos, Vasilis Gonis, Dimitris Koufontinas, and Nikos Maziotis, in which they appealed that Hatzis not become the first hunger striker to die in Greece. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe, the four political prisoners in Wing D2 of Domokos Prison, express our solidarity with our comrade Aristos Hatzis from the Prosfigika community onAlexandra Avenue, who has been on a hunger strike for 139 days to prevent the regional government and the state from implementing their plans to suppress the Prosfigika community. The life of our comrade on hunger strike is in immediate danger. \u201cWe must not allow the first death of a hunger striker in Greece to occur today,\u201d they wrote emphatically, with Mr. Doukas essentially agreeing with this view and submitting a relevant proposal. <\/p>\n
In any case, what is certain is that the Refugee Housing issue has now gone beyond the scope of a discussion about the redevelopment of a historic area; following Doukas\u2019s compromise, it has evolved into a purely political issue (with several ramifications that also involve Nikos Androulakis). The mayor of Athens is at the center of criticism for a decision that, rather than strengthening the restoration plan, has provided ammunition to those calling for the status quo to be maintained.<\/p>\n
However, the government and the Regional Authority insist that legality, the protection of public property, and the return of these spaces to the citizens cannot be subject to negotiation. The question now is whether the mayor of Athens, with the backing of Harilaou Trikoupi, will continue to yield to anarchists, ANTARSYA and\u2026 Koufontina, or whether he will stand up to those who believe the city can be governed by fait accompli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The letter signed by Akis Dimakopoulos, Vasilis Gonis, D. Koufontinas, and N. Maziotis in support of the striker became a City Council resolution …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}