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Attica governor heavily citicized

Attica governor Rena Dourou is under heavy fire from New Democracy through secretary for strategic planning and communication Giorgos Koumoutsakos, after press reports mentioned she turned over cleaning services to private firms.

Mr Koumoutsakos noted that “there is more than enough hypocrisy,” adding that Ms Dourou used the fired cleaning women of the finance minister as a pre-election ploy, and after her election she “took off her 'revolutionary gloves' and without second thought turned over the region to private cleaning firms.”

Ms Rena Dourou in retort said: “I did not bind myself for anything to no one,” and called the article in Proto Thema newspaper that stated that she had not hired the fired cleaning women in the region, but instead signed a contract with private cleaners, constructed.

Speaking to ANT1 television, the Attica governor said the article was a personal attack against her, noting that it all coincided with the destructive flooding that hit the region. Ms Dourou said: “What are they asking me to do? Make hirings? To hire the cleaners at the periphery? That would debase their struggle, which I still wholeheartedly support and want their justice... I did not promise that I would proceed to hirings pre-electoraly. I don't expect better treatment from people who have disinformation as their banner.”

The first days of Ms Dourou's tenure underscore the distance between pre-elections promises and reality, said ND parliamentary spokesman Adonis Georgiadis. On the issue of the cleaners, Mr Georgiadis noted that not only did she not annul the bid promulgated by her predecessor Yannis Sgouros she went ahead and signed it.

Mr Georgiadis added that before the elections SYRIZA cadres publicly demonized cleaning firms calling them modern slavers, and reminded that Ms Dourou had chained herself along with the cleaning women of the finance ministry, but now she signs on private firms. Mr Georgiadis concluded saying “this is heavy hoodwinking.”

The ND cadre went on to say that the region was not ready to deal with the flooding, perhaps because of inexperience, adding that if Mr Sgouros had been in the seat, SYRIZA would have been wailing and now there is not even an announcement.

Mr Georgiadis noted that Ms Dourou had basically just passed her predecessors budget in toto, apart from a slight raise in social funding. Before the elections she had pledged to stop the new waste management project at Grammatiko, but continues to fund it, said Mr Georgiadis, saying that she is doing well, but that he was merely pointing out the discrepancies.

In trying to support his superior, regional deputy governor Giorgos Karameros seems to have made things even worse by saying: "the cleaning women will be vindicated under a different government," leaving one to wonder if he meant the next government, or perhaps some future government.