New Democracy’s candidate for the Municipality of Athens, Aris Spiliotopoulos, supported the idea of carrying out a referendum in Athens regarding the much-delayed construction of a mosque.

Mr. Spiliotopoulos, who was interviewed in weekly newspaper Proto Thema, argued that the sensitive matter of constructing a mosque in Athens is serious and as such, a referendum is necessary to defend the participatory nature of democracy.

When asked whether there is “room” for more migrants in Athens, the New Democracy candidate categorically responded “no” and claimed that the issues of migration must be “dealt with on a hyper local, rather than self governing level”.

Athens has come under fire for being one of the few European capitals without a formal mosque. Although a mosque was to be constructed for the Athens Olympic Games in 2008, the project has been repeated delayed and postponed.