Mayor beats obstacles to meet with students
The mayor of a municipality in the northern Peloponnese took matters into his own hands yesterday and sat down at the negotiations table with students involved in a sit-in protest, convincing them to return to their classrooms. The school is one of hundreds across Greece that have been shut down by students making different demands, such as a call for more state funding in education. Messatida Mayor Athanassios Kolitsidas decided to break into the local school grounds that had been locked to speak with students and tell them about steps being made to meet their demands for improved classroom facilities. «I jumped the fence and entered,» said the mayor. Kolitsidas told students the municipality will hand over land it owns for the purpose of building extra facilities and promised that until then two new prefabricated rooms will help ease congested classrooms.
