The scandal of all scandals

0 high-fives

00 comments

Dear member,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece.

The debt of ND and PASOK cumulatively is circa 840 million euros and rising with no repercussions on the two parties. And that’s probably all you need to know about Greek politics and the finances of the state.

Some 48,700 hectares were burned (Opens in a new window) during the 17-30 July wildfires in Greece, but the head of the Greek Climate Change Committee claims it is not too bad compared with the California 2021 wildfire. The Greek PM promised free vacation for tourists affected in Rhodes before taking care of the local communities.

The good news is that a new movement reclaiming Greece’s beaches by denouncing illegal beach bars and sunbeds is spreading throughout the country and has already woken up the authorities, who have been turning a blind eye for decades.

It’s not as bad as California, so it’s alright.

The wildfires raging in Greece between 17 and 30 July left 48,700 hectares burned (Opens in a new window). The fire in Rhodes was the most destructive, followed by the one in Dervenohoria. Some 53,000 hectares have been burned in the country since the beginning of the year.

“Yes, it is tragic, but if we compare this number only with one wildfire in California in 2021, there 100,000 hectares were burned,” Scientific Committee for Climate Change Management in Greece president Kostas Synolakis stated (Opens in a new window) in an interview with the National Broadcaster ERT.

Meanwhile, a volunteer firefighter on the island of Rhodes died (Opens in a new window) in the local hospital, where he was hospitalized after suffering from severe respiratory problems. His relatives urge for an exact determination of the causes of his death, claiming his respiratory system suffered from his extensive exposure to wildfire smoke for 12 consecutive days.

Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Vassilis Kikilias announced (Opens in a new window) hiring 500 new firefighters and outlined the priorities for strengthening Civil Protection. However, as we have mentioned in a previous newsletter, at the end of last November, a decision published (Opens in a new window) in the Government Gazette provided that 3,630 hirings would increase the Fire Brigade. This never happened. Only now, they announce they will hire… 500 firefighters.

Notably, firefighters were captured sleeping on the ferry floor (Opens in a new window) as they returned from Rhodes. The Greek state did not even provide them with a cabin.

At the same time, hundreds of residents of Rhodes marched (Opens in a new window) on Wednesday in front of the Town Hall of the island’s capital on Tuesday night in the wake of the wildfire. They demanded better firefighting resources on the island, reforestation, and compensation to farmers, breeders, businesses, and workers. Rhodes was burning for some 12 consecutive days.

We have reasonable doubt that the Rhodes citizens’ demands are the PM’s priority as in an interview with British ITV, he pledged (Opens in a new window) to give tourists who had to escape the recent wildfires on the island of Rhodes a free one-week holiday there. Mitsotakis said people could accept the offer in the spring or autumn of 2024. But the BBC commented that he did not give details of how the free week could be claimed or how the scheme would work.

Meanwhile, the conservative German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung harshly criticized the Greek authorities for handling the wildfires.

“Why were no preventative measures applied when the temperature exceeded 40 degrees? Why were there no fire belts and no patrols? How is it possible for the evacuation to have been organized by citizens to a great degree? How can no modern fire-bomber airplanes be available in such a vulnerable area?” FAZ asks. “The 19,000 tourists who were saved in Rhodes by the locals now know to whom they owe their lives,” the report concluded.

FAZ also emphasized in another report (Opens in a new window):

“What is true, however, is that the most spectacular evacuation operation in the island's history was carried out in large part by the locals themselves.”

ND & PASOK soon to become 1 billion

It was just before the elections when we were breaking the news from this newsletter that the parties got a two-month extension (Opens in a new window) to publish their balance sheets - as they are obliged by law. The reason for this extension was obvious: to avoid getting some bad publicity that could cost them in the ballot box.

The balance sheets were published (Opens in a new window) this week. The numbers got us dizzy, as expected.

New Democracy: The party’s debt for 2022 is 435,567,175 euros, increased by 43,996,196 euros compared to 2021 (391,570,979 euros), according to their balance sheet.

The breakdown of the debt is as follows: bank debt 425,600,611 euros. Providers 9,606,879 euros. At all taxes and fees, 66,921 euros. Utility bills 132,170 euros. At all financial obligations, 160,593 euros.

It is illustrative that ND's income for 2022 was 12,983,504 euros (most of it, circa 11 million, comes from the annual state funding). Its expenses were 57,575,165 euros (personnel wages and bank interest rates and fees, among others as well as a very high amount of some 3.5 million of ‘various expenses’ and close to 3 million for ‘third party fees’).

As Dimokratia noted 2009, ND’s debt was 103 million euros, and in 2015 220 million euros. Under Mitsotakis, the party’s debt skyrocketed further.

PASOK-KINAL: Well, it would be worth noting here that there have been thoughts that it is highly possible PASOK changed its name some years ago to KINAL just to change its tax office registration number because the party’s debt was huge.

According to its balance sheets, PASOK’s debt for 2022 is 405,138,625 euros, an increase of 43,125,061 euros in comparison with 2021, when it was 362,013,564 ευρώ.

This amount breaks down to 398,005,864 bank debt, at all financial obligations is 6,083,299 euros, 985,388 is debt to providers, utility bills debt 51,860 euros, and taxes-fees 12,213 euros.

PASOK’s income in 2022 was 622,840 euros plus 124.568 from state funding. Expenses include 43,758,546 euros in interest rates and bank fees and 476,244 in personnel wages.

KINAL’s balance sheet was published separately, and its obligations are 1,061,984.

“Last week, a woman in the Ano Patisia area [Athens] was at risk of being violently evicted from her house, which was auctioned for a debt of 800 euros in… flat bills. But ND and PASOK, which owe an unbelievable debt of circa 840 million euros (435,567,175 for ND and 405,138,625 for PASOK), not only they would suffer no consequences, but their debt will continue to exist, and it shall be predicted that next year will be over 900 million and the year after, over 1 billion!” daily Dimokratia emphasized.

This is the scandal of the scandals - more so, since there is a telling omerta about it: Very few media published the news on the parties’ balance sheets, and you would certainly not hear a single word on the matter from the TV channels, all of them government-affiliated to a greater or lesser degree.

As Dimokratia noted, both ND and PASOK leaders, Mitsotakis and Androulakis, respectively, have affirmed that this debt has been regulated and it is being reduced as they pay the installments. “However, the result shows us that exactly the opposite is happening. ND debt is rising yearly by dozens of millions, and the same happens with PASOK’s debt.”

It is worth noting that only a bit more than 1,000 euros is the non-confiscatable amount for an indebted citizen’s bank accounts, yet the state annual funding to the parties is 40% non-confiscatable. “Installments for the parties have been regulated in a way that one and a half… centuries would be needed for them to repay the already existing debts!” Dimokratia noted (Opens in a new window).

The parties are not alone in this. It would be impossible for this to have been happening without the involvement of high-ranking bank officials. This is probably why one of the first bills ND voted for when elected into government in 2019 was for providing immunity to bank officials, who could now be prosecuted only after the filing of a lawsuit - thus, a prosecutor cannot undertake action against them. Justice Minister Giorgos Floridis recently stated (Opens in a new window) that the bankers' immunity should be lifted, only for his statement to be annulled by the government spokesman, who clarified (Opens in a new window) this is not in the government plans. Since then, no one, not even the minister himself, has revoked the issue again.

No prosecutor has intervened in this scandal. Needless to say, the two parties, with these two huge debts, are promising to tidy up the state's finances.

Like a wolf promising he will take good care of the sheep.

‘Save the beaches’ movement is here to stay

From Venice to Amsterdam and the Greek islands, over-tourism threatens to ruin what attracted tourists in the first place: authenticity and couleur locale.

In Greece, over-tourism combined with the short-sightedness of many local businessmen with the compliance or indifference of the Greek authorities is directly threatening the character of the Greek islands in multiple aspects. Extensive buildings, often with no respect to traditional architecture, monstrous constructions occupying beaches, and other developments, all to the detriment of conventional architecture and the environment.

Lately, a movement is springing up, reclaiming the beaches by denouncing illegalities. The law provides that beaches should be accessible to all people and sets specific quotas for the extent of the beach the sunbeds can occupy (50%) and how far they should be from the sea. In most cases, these standards are violated.

Just to glimpse how over-tourism threatens the islands, let us note that building in the most archetypical Greek islands, the Cyclades, has been unprecedented in the last five years, according to Daily Kathimerini (Opens in a new window). Only in Santorini, new construction and additions to existing buildings count for some 450,000 square meters. Some 1,001 building licenses have been issued, corresponding to 449,576 square meters. The number of square meters has tripled from 2020 (43,646) to 2021 (143,476).

Paros comes first regarding the number of construction licenses issued within five years: 1,101. The island, however, comes 3rd as to the corresponding number of square meters to these licenses (281,094).

Then comes Mykonos, for which 634 building licenses have been issued, corresponding to 321,999 square meters, while the most oversized Cyclades island Naxos is also pressured by increased construction activity. Building pace in the Small Cyclades is also significant, with tiny Antiparos coming first and even more tiny Koufonisi and Folegandros following.

The report noted that these data do not even give us the whole picture, as they do not include the legalization of illegally constructed buildings in the corresponding years.

It is also worth remembering that as recently as last March, archaeologist Manolis Psarros, a Culture Ministry employee overseeing Mykonos, was attacked as he walked toward his car. “There was a general strike the next day, and I needed to get through my files on Mykonos,” Psarros told (Opens in a new window) the Guardian. “I can remember approaching the car, but after that, it’s a blur,” he told the Observer. “All I know is that I was struck on the head from behind with such force I lost consciousness.” The attack was thought to be linked with the archaeologist’s activity to point out illegal construction on the island and block new construction connected with hotel and catering businesses there.

In another incident, a video showing a waiter (Opens in a new window)in Rhodes carrying a tray with snacks and wading above his waist into the water to serve customers on platforms built above the sea had caused a furor in social media in Greece. The reactions triggered reports (Opens in a new window) which went further from the humiliating working conditions aspect and revealed that the specific beach bar is illegal and there has been an order for its shutdown since 2016 - something that never happened.

The ‘Save the Beaches’ movement sprung in June from Rhodes (Opens in a new window). Under ‘Umbrella,’ citizens started investigating illegalities on the island’s beaches. They gave a press conference and began collecting evidence and data.

The ‘Save the Beaches’ movement then sprang up in Paros (Opens in a new window) this July, when local citizens decided to act as if they had seen nothing but indifference (if not compliance) from the authorities. They came together and investigated where businesses have illegally occupied the beach by comparing the existing contracts with the situation on the ground. They then (Opens in a new window)realized that in quite a few cases, the beaches were 100% up to… 1000% occupied by beach bars - when the law provides that no beach can be occupied more than 50% by any business.

‘Save Paros Beaches (Opens in a new window)’ then decided to stage a protest on some beaches, starting from Santa Maria and Marcelo. They invited people to enjoy the sea there freely. The results are already evident as Santa Maria is freed (Opens in a new window)from illegal sunbeds.

In mid-July, the ‘Save Naxos Beaches (Opens in a new window) Now’ was born (Opens in a new window). Within a few days, the relevant Facebook group had over 3,500 members. A letter, signed by more than 1,500 people, is to be sent to the prosecutor and the Authorities. They also started registering illegalities with a drone to compare them with the contract terms. As one of the team, Mrs. Andrianopoulou, told (Opens in a new window) Daily Kathimerini, illegalities in Naxos are not confined to sunbeds. She claims there are environmental, construction, and hygiene illegalities. For example, cables, cement, and stages in the sand. She claimed rocks are being trimmed down, and dunes are being destroyed.

The latest development was the ‘Save Falasarna (Opens in a new window)’ movement, which sprang up in Crete to save one of its most notorious beaches (Falasarna). According to local media, 13 businessmen have already been arrested in relation to illegal sunbeds in Falasarna. The citizens’ group reveals (Opens in a new window) that four-wheeled motorbikes are ruining dunes and sunbeds occupying some 80% of the beach, the decibel coming from the beach bar exceeds the legal limit, and whether all these are licensed is contested.

The results of this citizens’ awakening are heartening. The new Top Prosecutor, Georgia Adilini, has already ordered (Opens in a new window) an investigation into cases related mainly to Paros and Serifos.

Finance Minister Hatzidakis stated (Opens in a new window) they are going to be strict with those tourist businesses that don’t abide by the law. Even if the government does nothing in the end (they were aware before as to what is happening), such a statement is quite unprecedented.

And this was some good news after a long time.

PS: Greek media have dubbed the protests “the beach towel revolt,” referring to the items beachgoers brought to sit on before the spread of rented chairs. Well, it is not “the beach towel revolt.” It is the revolt for accessible beaches. It is a revolt to reclaim public space.