“That’s why I decided to run…”

“Here we are, we have to tell the truth even if it hurts…” says l Lamiaa report and Dimitris Konstantopoulos, candidate municipal councilor Makis Printzas.

Lamia’s report was also announced by the well-known dentist Lamia Makis Printzas Among the mayoral candidates announced at the recent Park Square event was the candidate Mayor of Lamia Panurgea Papaioannou.

In an interview given by L Lamiaa report Dimitris Konstantopoulos tells us why he decided to be a candidate, but also what his personal bet is for the day after.

interview:

thes: What is the main reason a busy freelancer should get involved in local government today

ap: Mr. Konstantopoulos, there are many reasons for someone to get involved and a lot of reasons not to get involved. My motivation came from an event that I found traumatic. I gathered a group of my son’s early teen friends and asked them how they envision their lives in 10 years. My understanding is that our city is not in their plans, whether by choice or necessity. Consistent phenomena are the difficulty of finding specialist work, lack of incentive for business, discrediting of communities based mainly on the heroic efforts of local councils, as well as lack of incentives for a new person. This attitude to things has nothing to do with our youth and how we saw our city and its prospects.

Most of those who left to study, it was always our main choice to come back and be active in the city where we grew up. If the modern trend of young children is not immediately reversed, the decline of our city and our communities will be irreversible. We are here, we have to tell the truth even if it hurts. So my ultimate motivation is this. Restoring Lamia’s lost prestige and above all putting it back on the map of choice for the profession and livelihood for our youth, whether in the center of the municipality or in the communities.

thes: You fear the failure of your group or personal group

ap: I will be honest with you, I am not afraid of failure, on the contrary, I respect it. As long as we live and learn, I would say we are the sum of our successful and unsuccessful choices. As a dentist for 23 years in Lamia, I listen every day to the needs of my fellow citizens and the market as well as the demands of young people. But I must stress that I am very optimistic about the project. As the French writer Andrés Malraux says, “Man can only develop by chasing what surpasses him.”

At the level of synthesis, especially after the shocking attendance of the people at the event on Wednesday, but also the discussion with the citizens every day, I believe that a majority trend has been established at the current stage. Panourgias Papaioannou created a multi-group ballot. Let the people elect who they think will do best to solve the current issues of our city. We don’t live in the age of cross cards. The world is tired, it has memory and judgment. We are here to respond to his reservations, his anger and his frustration, not with platitudes and promises, but with action.

thes: Who do you think is the greatest danger before the upcoming municipal elections?

ap: If you had asked me a while ago, I would have told you that the biggest danger is apparent toxicity and divisive attitudes wherever they come from. I tell you what I gather: people hate these. He doesn’t care if you say the other person is worse than you. He is interested in telling him why you are better and why he should choose you. Easy password solutions have been tried and failed. Not everyone is so naive and we are not smart. It takes patience, work, and collaboration the next day, whatever the outcome. Society talks, if you don’t listen it will pass by without you even realizing it.

Ultimately, what matters is a citizen’s standard of living and accountability for our actions. But I tell you today that the greatest danger is chastity, especially among young men. They can and should determine the developments in their city in the coming years. but never; When they are convinced that they can participate and be part of that change. I do not hesitate to say that the youth’s abstention from the electoral process leads to a change in the outcome of the elections, not in the legal sense of the word, but in terms of the life and perspective of our country.

thes: Is there a typical city for you? Has the “open, smart sustainable city” of the triptych become a dessert?

ap: Look, cities are living ecosystems. The modern approach to cities states that it is not enough for example. A company to expand the city’s fiber-optic network or make street signs “smart”. The benefits of improved infrastructure must have tangible impacts on citizens. Financial instruments are and will be. The city’s network of services and procedures should cooperate with each other through proper planning, making consumers, merchants, workers, companies and tourists happy to live in. Not only in the center but also in every municipality and community, taking individual comparative advantages.

To increase the citizen happiness index, the city must invest in green spaces, not cement. In cultural and cognitive acts and not in communication events without a social imprint. In short, to save and not “steal” from future generations. Under these conditions, yes, we can talk about a typical city, a city where you live and advertise.

thes: There is a personal bet for you

ap: I have faith in the vision and determination of my friend Panorgias Papaioannou. We are all called upon to help with this. I don’t see it as a personal bet, it’s a team fight. It is a new challenge for us to take the lead and continue at an even faster pace in transforming our city. With the vanguard of youth and props for all of us. And above all, let us all meet the next day, whatever the outcome.

We’re down by nearly 10,000. We can’t afford to be divided. Malcolm X said: “Voting is like a bullet, you don’t fire until you see the target. If the target seems far away, keep the vote in your pocket.” So we will try to bring the target closer to October. The goal of a city where we and our children want to live. I firmly believe that the permanently dominant citizen will trust us.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart