Passing the buck over quarries
The crisis over the two quarries in Markopoulo would be amusing was it not such a serious issue. Senior state officials – elected as well as those appointed – have so far failed to implement the Council of State ruling ordering the quarries to stop operating. An irritating amount of buck-passing is going on between regional and local authorities unwilling to take on the responsibility. But this is a serious issue – in fact more serious than the health hazard posed by the continuous digging at the quarries, east of Athens. Some state officials are currently making a mock of the judiciary. What we have here is a senior court decision that no one dares to implement. High-ranking politicians hide behind bureaucratic excuses as if they were average civil servants. We do have judges. But there is no state to implement their rulings.
