June 8, 2012
The world is fixating on coming national elections here that may determine the euro zone's future. But inside Greece, local leaders are struggling with more prosaic concerns, like trash pickups.
In this northern Greek city, officials say mounting piles of garbage became such a problem that at one point the mayor called the Greek army for help removing it. Locals call the mounds "the mountains," and blame them on everyone from elected officials to the International Monetary Fund.
Garbage has piled up frequently during nationwide strikes by municipal workers protesting Greece's new path of austerity. To some Greek observers and newly elected officials, they symbolize rot and waste in public spending, and entrenched interests standing in the way of fixing those problems.
The difficulties in Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city, have been spotlighted amid a public feud between the mayor, who casts himself as a reformer, and members of local trade unions concerned he will privatize garbage collection.
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