Another night of tensions and incidents between police and inhabitants occurred in Keratea, a working-class neighbourhood in the south-east of Athens. The inhabitants are opposing the creation of a large rubbish tip in the area.
The incidents started when a group of residents set fire to a bulldozer. The bulldozer was trying to clear the road to Lavorio from the barricades that had been put up by local residents, in an attempt to block traffic.
Keratea, together with Grammatiko’, both near Athens, have been selected to host waste tips that should serve the capital and the whole Attica region after several waste disposal crises in the past.
The citizens of Keratea are against the construction of the new large rubbish tip. They claim that normal procedures have not been followed, and that the dump would be constructed near an archaeological site.
The government is pushing for a rapid execution of the projects, also to secure the provided European funds. After a judge temporarily halted works until a verdict was reached, the Greek State Council decided on January 10th to give green light to the construction of the Keratea dump. Today the newspaper To Vima writes that the Greek police are studying a plan to deal with the ”Keratea crisis”, considered by many to be one of the most serious problems authorities were faced with in the past years. According to the newspaper, police sources say that the violence will increase and that a ”painful” attack by some illegal armed organisation on the police or on machinery in the area where the rubbish tip is planned to be built cannot be ruled out.
Tension continued in Keratea, eastern Attica, on Tuesday (video)
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