The Athens Municipal Council has approved a €75 million European Investment Bank loan for public school repairs, with Mayor Haris Doukas winning a majority coalition vote over opposition led by former Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis — before the session collapsed into an hour of shouting over a resolution marking the three-year anniversary of the Pylos migrant shipwreck.
Mr. Bakoyannis, whose father was assassinated by the November 17 terrorist group in 1989, argued the 20-year credit line imposed unacceptable long-term debt on future generations.
"This is a massive loan that will disproportionately burden future generations of Athenians," he said. Mr. Doukas countered that the municipal budget lacked the immediate liquidity to address critical safety and modernisation backlogs in the capital's ageing schools.
The Pylos resolution, which passed by majority vote after prolonged procedural disorder, pushed nearly all remaining agenda items to a future session.
The gridlock forced a late-night adjournment.
Before adjourning, the council unanimously observed a minute of silence for Eleni Portaliou, a former city councillor and architecture professor who died at 79, and voted to grant Mrs. Portaliou a free honorary burial site at the First Cemetery of Athens.
The EIB loan approval reflects a broader pattern of Greek municipal and national infrastructure borrowing this year, including the central government's €6.9 billion debt prepayment and a concurrent €75 million allocation through EU structural funds for public services reported in this series.