Workers at the Skouries goldmine in Halkidiki prefecture went on the offensive Friday in a bid to deflect opposition to the controversial investment by the new leftist SYRIZA government, warning, amongst others: “Don’t play with our lives, we’ll become your nightmare”.
The phrase was included in a letter addressed to Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, following a controversial decision by energy and production minister Panagiotis Lafazanis to revoke a previous building code certification for the site and order a re-inspection of the mining and processing site.
According to a press release by the ministry, the re-inspection aims to “defend, in the most effective and substantive way, the rule of law, and primarily, the environment and the state’s interests.”
The decision by Lafazanis, the unofficial leader of SYRIZA’s far-left anti-capitalist “Left Platform” grouping, triggered the sharp and immediate reaction by the nearly 2,000 workers in Skouries, operated by the Canadian multinational El Dorado Gold.
Representatives of the workers called Lafazanis “unreliable”, charging that the minister with whom they were in contact up until recently is the “most leftist minister, one who didn’t keep his word to us, but preferred to do the bidding of immoral and dishonest invidivuals.”
The first reaction, on the government’s part, was by “ministry sources”, who merely said that Lafazanis’ decision “in no way hurts workers’ interests”.