Stopping the illicit mining
The continuing operation of quarries at Markopoulo in southeast Attica has all the familiar ingredients of a typical Greek anomaly. Costas Karamanlis, the country’s prime minister, has personally gone on record expressing deep disappointment at the fact that the two quarries are still in operation despite court rulings that supposedly prohibit precisely this. One hopes that the intervention yesterday by Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis, who pledged to present the country’s Supreme Court with evidence of the wrongdoing, will prove to be more than just another cheap publicity stunt with no respect for the public at large. This move by Hatzidakis will hopefully signal a crucial turning point, indeed one which will put in motion mechanisms that will ultimately put an end to what is most clearly a totally unacceptable and degenerate situation. This is a situation that accurately reflects the alarming extent of political and business entanglement at both a local and a national level.
