Tsipras And Kammenos Meet Thrace Delegation Against Gold Mine

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The issue of gold mining in Greece is in the forefront once again and it can well be one of the first issues which finds SYRIZA and the Independent Greek party in total agreement. Earlier this week, main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras and the leader of the Independent Greeks party leader Panos Kammenos met and held talks with a delegation of local government officials and activist groups who oppose the State's plans for gold mining in the northern Greek region of Thrace. The delegation included the head of the Macedonia-Thrace regional authority Aris Yiannakidis and the (outspoken and controversial) Alexandroupolis Mayor Vaggelis Lambakis, as well as representatives of local party organisations and a regional committee agitating against plans to mine gold in the region.

Expressing his solidarity with their cause, and describing Thrace as a "historic and sensitive" region that needed investments that would not "pillage" but promote growth, Tsipras called for investments that would highlight the region's comparative advantages rather than destroying its natural environment.

   "We need productive investments, not piratical investments," he added.

Commenting on the results of his meetings with local officials and groups, the leader of SYRIZA was quoted as saying that he had found "all political and social forces fighting together and demanding future prospects for their area."

When a local community set aside its differences and joined forces behind a common goal, he added, then no one had a right to impose their own plans.

On is part, Panos Kammenos talked of a "huge crime spreading from Halkidiki to Thrace and especially in the Evros region," and also pledged his party's support for the delegation's demands, in Parliament and "at the side of the local community that united is refusing the destruction of its home".

   "The gold-diggers, apart from the shops buying gold from the Greek people and banking on the crisis, have started to offer so-called investments that will leave only cyanide and arsenic in Greece's soil and a devastated area that can neither be cultivated nor exploited for tourism," he added.