“I Resign for My Dignity”: Stavros Benos Makes Dramatic Exit From Evros Reconstruction Project

Stavros Benos has left the Evros reconstruction project, declaring that his departure was the only responsible option if he was to preserve his personal dignity. The former minister announced the decision at a news conference in Soufli, after signaling it three weeks earlier.

Benos, who heads the DIAZOMA association, said the plan’s philosophy had been completely distorted. DIAZOMA will continue working in the region, he said, but only as an independent voluntary organization. He added that he had worked voluntarily for five years and invested substantial resources in Evros and Euboea.

The available funding amounts to three billion euros, but Benos warned that it risks being spent on disconnected projects. He accused the traditional clientelist state of refusing to follow European requirements for a unified strategy. Without central operational coordination, he said, the program of 238 projects would completely deteriorate within three years.

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I resign for my dignity.

“If the regional program remains as it is, it will end up an empty shirt, as the poet says of Helen,” Benos said. He also called the appointment of a government secretary in the region unnecessary and demeaning to local government.

Benos said the modernization and electrification of the Evros railway had been removed from the immediate priorities, contrary to the approach taken in Northern Euboea. Studies by Democritus University of Thrace have remained frozen three years after the disaster, he said, and none of the one million euros needed for six critical studies has been disbursed to the university.

He called on the government to restore the projects to the framework of the master plan, saying Evros residents were now the only hope of preventing the region’s decline.

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If the regional program remains as it is, it will end up an empty shirt, as the poet says of Helen.