(6 January 2014) Municipal elections will take place in Greece in May 2014. Together with the European elections they will be an important indicator of the judgement of Greeks on their government policies of austerity.
These policies include the privatisation of the water companies in Athens and Thessaloniki, the second largest city. A series of opinion polls was conducted to get a feeling for voter preferences in November and December 2013. While mainly focused on political preferences, people where also asked what they think of the proposals to privatise EYATH.
The people were very clear: 76% of people polled rejected it (please use Google translate) And this included an overwhelming majority of potential Syriza voters but also a very large majority of those which would consider voting for conservative Néa Dimokratía, one of the coalition partners of the current government.
EPSU has drawn the attention of the potential investors to the risks of buying up companies whose privatisation is not supported by the population. We asked them to withdraw their bid. Both consortia (around Israeli public water company Mekorot and French multinational company Suez Environment) have indicated that they will continue their bids.
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