It’s Thursday afternoon, and I am on the old highway to meet with the mayor of Tempi, Georgos Manolis. Although I should be thinking about the questions I have prepared for the interview, the natural landscape of the Tempi Valley is distracting me— and rightfully so. But as I approach the city’s headquarters, Makrychori, the main issues I want to discuss come to mind, namely the lack of transport infrastructure, internet, hosting, and remote working space. The mayor and I greet each other from a distance due to the coronavirus. I get treated to the traditional spoon sweet, and our first conversation is about the place’s past, starting with the photos of Takis Tloupa that are hanging in the office lobby. Very soon, we move on to the area’s current pressing problems.
We can keep saying words, “maslatia”, as we call it in my village; it’s pointless. I can listen to you for days, but will we see any results?
Local transport: A constant bane
Starting the interview, I mention the lack of municipal transport from the Rapsani Railway Station to the village—something that seems to be one of the issues that often recur in the mayor’s office. As he himself admits, “although two national networks [the Athens - Thessaloniki - Evzoni motorway and the Piraeus - Thessaloniki railway line] cross our municipality, we cannot make proper use of them”.
Although the municipality of Tempi is served by the Larissa Bus Lines (KTEL), the routes are neither frequent nor do they reach all the villages. Local travel is partially covered by the KTEL buses that run school routes, a service that is unavailable during holiday periods and was also disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the mayor refers to discussions with the Chamber of Commerce of Larissa regarding possible summer services linking Rapsani station with nearby villages and beaches during the summer months, but these remain at an early stage.
The mayor also highlights the issue of the Evangelismos Railway Station, through which the Thessaloniki-Larissa line of the Thessaloniki Suburban Railway passes without stopping. The reason why the station has been inactive for more than ten years is the lack of a footbridge for safe passage over the tracks, a project with specifications for the disabled that will cost less than 250,000 euros.
Even though it seems that the above concerns both the mayor and the city council, Manolis says that small municipalities’ resources are quite limited and the financing of additional routes is not an eligible expenditure of European funds. But apart from the financial aspects of it, he also comments on non-decentralisation: “All matters are resolved in Athens, and it is very difficult for us rural people to go there every now and then to sort out any problem, big or small.”.
In search of infrastructure
During our chat, the mayor is quite insistent on the limited resources and capabilities at his disposal. More specifically, he describes himself as a practical man who focuses on the cost of any proposed action, something that keeps coming up.
He recognises the need for fast and reliable internet but clarifies that this is mainly a matter for telephone and internet providers. As an example, he mentions the students in Spilia village who had difficulty attending the online classes. Another example is the people working in Larissa who, while they could have returned to their villages and worked remotely during the pandemic, were unable to do so because of the inadequate internet infrastructure. In particular, with regard to free internet access through the Wifi4EU programme in Rapsani square, he acknowledged that it was a project of the previous administration and that the framework for its operation needs investigation.
Right from the start, the mayor makes sure to express his doubts about the return of young people to rural areas, recalling similar discussions in the 1980s. He even mentions the example of the people who work at the Rapsani Guest House of the Self-Help Promotion Program who experienced first-hand the desolation of mountain villages during the winter months. As he noted, “A young person does not easily return to the village because in winter it is a desert. Hopefully the coronavirus will bring us to the opposite state.”.
In addition, he acknowledges the poor hosting infrastructure in Rapsani, which does not meet modern tourism standards. Furthermore, he assumes that new infrastructure can be built in cooperation with civil society groups, but: “Let’s not fool each other with ‘yes, I will help you’, and then that’s that! This ‘let me help you’ should be translated into action. It takes money, and that is where we small municipalities suffer. But if the residents’ initiatives are on this track, then of course we should support and help them find resources, because giving them resources is very difficult. If you can manage to start something like that from Rapsani and Souroukia, that is to say, if they can start a non-profit company (NPC), we will be more than happy to help them in any way they want: licensing, everything.”.
Notes on the municipality’s role
The return from Makrichori to Rapsani is quite different from the way there. My thoughts now revolve around a word that was mentioned in the interview: “maslati”, meaning casual chat on any matter whatsoever. Accepting the mayor’s narrative regarding limited resources, what keeps coming to mind is the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development’s Guidelines for Local Governments on Policies for Social and Solidarity Economy.
A set of municipal policies for the regeneration of uplands will certainly need a long-term participatory process. But if we are not to dwell on “maslatia”, we need to start with what we have here and now: people who care about their place and are collectively taking action through the organisations they have set up, scarce operational municipal infrastructure, such as the library, and a dormant municipal building stock, such as the primary school. This is the raw material we found with the first mapping of Rapsani as a local ecosystem. Such an ecosystem, however, could, in cooperation with the local government, be a catalyst for the revitalization of the area. But what could be the role of a municipal authority with limited resources in such an initiative?
Focusing on Rapsani as a case study and as it came out through discussions with its gradually emerging ecosystem, the school space could serve as an infrastructure to attract remote workers, combined with a small hosting facility and a fast and reliable internet. The municipality’s part in such an effort could start by granting the use of movable and real estate property, such as a bus or an inactive primary school, to a local consortium of Social Solidarity Economy actors for a specific, but in any case long-term, period. At the same time, these actors can take on the tasks of configuration, maintenance, operation, and the issuing of planning or other permits. The above may seem impossible for Greece, but this is something that we have already seen happen, even under existing legislation. It can only be done through collaboration between the emerging local ecosystem and the elected and working people of the municipality of Tempi, making Rapsani the first part of a broader revitalization process for the whole municipality.