Onasagoras
The ‘Healthy one’ (President Nicos Anastasiades) has landed on the unions like a sumo wrestler, following their shenanigans in the public health and education domains.
“Some people’s (see Filios below) exaggerated zeal made him very upset and uttered: enough is enough, I’m not going to allow this state to be turned into a fiefdom!” as my source close to Nikaros related it to me. This person even told me that this angry outburst came out right at the moment when His Healthiness was in a good mood to sit down and talk things out with (Education Minister Costas) Hambiaouris and the educators.
My source points out that POED state teachers union’s request for a meeting has made it all the way to the Hill. “While he was prepared to view a meeting with them as something positive, the issue has been blown out of proportion making a quick response a rather difficult task. In no way would he ever want to appear as if he was demeaning his minister and taking over, especially after everything that took place. On the other hand, seeing how Akel (opposition on the left) has joined the game along with other players who got their chance to score political points, the man is in a hurry to get this crisis over with.”
According to my source, Nikaros holds a similar position regarding the criticism that has been directed at the health minister (Constantinos Ioannou) but also in connection with organised crime and disapproval levels of the Police and Ionas (Interior Minister Ionas Nicoalou).
“And because the crises are piling up again, it is not out of the question that we might see Nikaros taking on the role of the pope again, holding conferences at the Presidential (palace) and handing out solutions.
'This sums up how Filios lost the game, and his cool, and overturned the sentimet against Hambiaouris'
Besides, this is something he has done in the past, quite successfully at that,” the source said.
But the crisis in Education gets more complicated with reactions from educators themselves, mainly teachers.
Based on what I can gather, there had been a lot of intense reactions during POED meetings regarding the way the teachers union is carrying out its politics. To that point, POED president Filios Fylaktou’s Facebook comments and personal attack against Hambiaouris was not well received at all.
Among other things, Fylaktou wrote on his page “TEACHER, NURSERY SCHOOL TEACHER, SPECIAL EDUCATOR, PROFESSOR, even if a child asks to go to the toilet during class… think twice, think again what you will do! If something happens, knock on wood, while the child goes to the toilet, this man will have you for breakfast! …YOU (teacher, nursery teacher, etc) BE CAREFUL!!!! May God be with you you!!!!”
"This sums up how Filios lost the game, and his cool, and overturned the sentimet against Hambiaouris” said one young teacher, adding that “what he had managed to build in Thessaloniki, he knocked it down with just one post.”
He also noted that “the priority for teachers, if indeed they want to diffuse the crisis, would be to have a meeting with organised parents, to keep them on their side as allies. On the contrary, now, we managed to have them on the opposing camp, giving ammunition to Hambiaouris instead of supporting us.”
A nice friendly wave from across the room
Nikaros also sent his greetings to Odysseas-Chuck Norris (Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides) from what my source tells me, who heard His Healthiness' speech last night Wednesday.
The way I was told about this, the brief mention/plea offered by Nikaros had a very precise target when the president called for eliminating bureaucracy but not advancing formalism.
“Odysseas had better hope that Nikaros not lose patience with him either, because if that happens it will be comparable to a Korea crisis. Allegations of slowing down due to the bottleneck by the auditor general are coming left and right to the ministers and the Presidential.
“The reference to formalities was not without substance,” my source said.
