Η yesterday's heated clash The tension between the municipal government and the opposition was, in the end, just a warm-up. The political scene in Kythira has now «caught fire,» as the municipality’s decision that same day to block traffic in the southern part of the island served as the perfect pretext for the confrontation to continue.
The faction «Free Kythira», following up on yesterday’s open clash, he returned today with a scathing press release, launching an unprecedented attack against the mayor and the administration.
What sparked this new round of conflict was the complete lack of planning. As reported by *Elefthera Kythira*, the suspension of access to four settlements (from Goudianika to Kato Livadi) was announced… after it had already been implemented! Read the faction’s press release below:
Announcement Regarding the Sudden Road Closures from Goudianika to Kato Livadi
ARROGANCE and UTTER DISGRACE on the part of the municipal authorities: a last-minute announcement that access to four villages is being closed off. You leave to buy bread and don’t return for two days. You go out to take a swim and end up sleeping on the beach.
And it’s not just that the closure of access to homes and hotels is announced to residents and businesses on the same day, nor is it just that there are no signs indicating an alternative route. It’s that they don’t even suggest another way to get there! «Use alternative routes,» the incompetents beg!
What are the alternatives? A 13-kilometer goat trail through Komponada just to get out of Katouni?;
And then they go on and lecture us about how public works projects should be carried out! Right now, in order for this strikingly incompetent system to ensure the timely completion of this highly controversial project, every principle of legality and good governance is being trampled underfoot—with no excuse of extraordinary circumstances. A «necessary sacrifice by the complacent residents of Kythira» for the mayor and his associates. They, of course, know how to create parking spaces for elected officials at the expense of the public right-of-way so that their «privileged feet» aren’t burdened by the 100-meter walk from the parking lot to City Hall, but for everyone else, it’s a “nuisance” that they can’t get home in the summer.
Fellow citizens, greed knows no bounds, and you can see how it’s spreading every day. Let’s all do our part to stop it. When we at EK identify the ruling coalition’s dependence on certain construction interests as the main problem facing our island, it is not because we hate public works, nor because we harbor some ideological bias against the construction industry. It is because our decision about what kind of society we want on the island must not be dictated by ANY lobby group.
We must work together to create the conditions for growth that will keep young people here, otherwise we’ll keep devouring one another until the only people left on the island are our friends who can afford to stay here because they have other sources of income.
