Municipalities ‘can’t go bankrupt,’ minister tells Marathon mayor
Interior Minister Argyris Dinopoulos on Thursday approved an advance of 400,000 euros for the Municipality of Marathon, northeast of Athens, to cover its payroll needs after Mayor Ilias Psinakis suggested on Wednesday that the municipality was close to bankruptcy.
“No body of the general government, under any circumstances, can go bankrupt,” Dinopoulos (photo, front) said, according to the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency.
On Wednesday, Psinakis, a TV personality and entrepreneur who was elected mayor of Marathon in May, said the local authority would stop paying suppliers but would not seek a loan to cover its shortfall. He said that the municipality is close to bankruptcy because of mismanagement by previous officials.
“The party that had been going on for the last 16 years in the Municipality of Marathon is over and I am stuck with the bill,” he said.
