Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris believes that the government’s behaviour is “completely crazy” but he has nevertheless led the way among peers in transferring his municipality’s cash reserves to the Bank of Greece, where the government can use them for short-term borrowing.
“It is very important that we show this municipality understands what will happen to the country,” Boutaris told the municipal council ahead of a vote on the matter. “We are not doing the government a favour; we are supporting the country.”
However, Boutaris admitted that he does not see eye to eye with the coalition on the way it has handled negotiations with the institutions. “The government does not speak the same language as those it is negotiating with,” he told Kathimerini. “That is why they cannot understand each other.”
Boutaris’s insistence that the money should be transferred runs counter to the stance taken by the union of municipalities (KEDE), which said it would wait for legislation to be passed ensuring that the cash will be returned to the local authorities after a specific period of time.
“He rushed ahead,” said KEDE president Giorgos Patoulis, also mayor of Maroussi, regarding Boutaris’s decision. “We are waiting for clarification and then we will decide what to do at our next meeting.”
Source: Kathimerini