The Mayor of Thessaloniki Yannis Boutaris was invited on Radio Thessaloniki to comment on the suspension of electricity to households unable to pay their bills. Mr. Boutaris demanded that “the suspensions of electricity supply must end for everyone” and accused the government and opposition “of trying to fool everyone” with their sporadic solutions to the problem.
Mr. Boutaris stressed that “the government must make a deal with DEI to investigate which households truly cannot pay for electricity and the government must then pay, not the municipalities”, arguing that municipal funds are not enough. In Thessaloniki there are an estimated 15,000 households without electricity.
The Mayor also dismissed the Minister of Environment Yannis Maniatis’ announcement that vulnerable households (which have already signed up to the social tariff) will receive free electricity whenever the smog pollution is bad as “nonsense”.
