“There can be no political change without PASOK. Under no circumstances should we abandon our goal of first place — because if you say ‘I’m not going for first place,’ you can very easily find yourself falling even lower,” said Athens Mayor Haris Doukas in an interview with Parapolitika 90.1 on the show “Facing Microphones,” hosted by journalists Sotiris Xenakis and Vasilis Skouris. He noted that the ruling New Democracy party would love to see him leave PASOK, and stressed that “the problem is that we represent an approach that stands in direct opposition to government policy. We say that stability means removing the New Democracy government.” Regarding the violent attacks in Thessaloniki, he stated that “violence has no place in democracy, and we must condemn all such actions in the strongest and most unequivocal terms.”
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Haris Doukas: Full interview on Parapolitika 90.1
On Athens’ tourism season
H. DOUKAS: Athens will welcome 8 million tourists this year. Athens is now the number one destination in the entire country — it’s no longer just a stopover for the islands. Visitors stay an average of 3.5 days, and during this period we have over half a million tourists in the city every single day. The period from May to October is the most challenging, because you have both Athenians and tourists at the same time, which puts enormous pressure on infrastructure. It’s tough for us too, but we’ll manage.
On the occasion of World No Plastic Bag Day and the initiative by TEHAN and the NextStep Media Group
H. DOUKAS: This is a tremendous campaign against plastic bags and plastic pollution in general. Waste has value — recycling is also financially rewarding. At €1 for 33 items, and given the very real levels of poverty in our city, every euro counts. I genuinely believe that recycling is the key to everything we talk about when it comes to the environment and climate change.