«Free Kythera» returns publicly with a sharp and extensive press release, carrying the voice of dozens of citizens who have recently addressed the «Citizen's Line». After the festive period, where - as they point out - they consciously chose not to exacerbate the political climate, the party records that the problems are not only not resolved, but are deepening. At the heart of this are the major road projects, especially the sewerage system in the South Department, with residents experiencing daily inconvenience, safety risks and serious consequences for the economic and social life of the island.
PRESS RELEASE 23/01/2026
ELEFTHERPA KYTHIRA - Citizen's Line
It would be unrealistic to expect a municipality in the middle of a holiday to come up with solutions that it cannot provide while it is in full operation. Combined with the opportunity that the holiday season provides us to relax and cheer up, something we all more or less need, we decided not to aggravate the atmosphere with our oppositional discourse and so we did not publicly position ourselves on the requests of all those who contacted us by phone or sent emails to the «Citizen's Line» (which has been in operation since 10/12/2025). But the holidays are over and the problems remain.
The dominant theme is not surprising: the overwhelming majority of the protests concern the months-long suffering of residents in the areas where road works are being carried out: the stalled and abandoned water pipeline replacement project from Gerakari to Potamos, and especially the sewerage project in the southern part of the island.
The complaints are numerous and reveal different aspects of the problem. Most of our fellow citizens mentioned the daily difficulty in getting around. They are literally forced to cross olive groves to reach their homes due to the simultaneous closure of all roads. At the same time, a fellow citizen who is carrying out construction work in the Kalamos area through a funded project informed us that crews and trucks are unable to reach the construction sites, as large vehicles cannot pass through the muddy alternative routes that have been opened through the fields. They all stressed the same thing, with the same anguish: «You can't keep quiet about it.»
Our position
For a long time we have been pointing out the lack of organization in the administration of the Municipality of Kythera. It is particularly important to mention that out of the approximately 27.000.000 euros of the project budget, NOT a single euro was provided for the preparation of a basic transport study. A study that would define the sequence of works so that when each part of the project is carried out, safe and adequate alternative service routes are offered.
Not even the minimum effort was made to check the signs and markings, resulting in traffic accidents (one of which resulted in injury).
Hiding behind the «we are people of the works», they thought that this was enough, even if it was accompanied by incomplete or non-existent information about road closures, even if the works destroy tyres, wheels and suspensions, if they damage the economy (just remember the situation in front of the lion's den during the two months of their operation), if they inconvenience and annoy workers, students, elderly people, tourists (the water supply project in Agia Anastasia* started with the tourist season, as if on purpose to annoy as many people as possible!).
This situation is not normal, nor is it accidental. It is the result of the simultaneous and disorganised disruption of traffic on the roads, without a plan, without coordination and, above all, without concern for the inconvenience, without respect for people's daily lives.
One wonders what the so-called «maturation» offered by our Mayor's Network is really about. Is this late communicative term simply an excuse to legally bypass proper design, in the same context where responsible supervision by independent experienced engineers (which may cost contractors but offers quality control in public works) is replaced by a daytime supervisor «at the behest of the contractor »**?;
The results of these choices are clearly reflected in the photos sent to us by our fellow citizens and illustrate the third world situations that we all experience every day.
Dear fellow citizens, let us NOT CONSENT to these images. No matter how much they try to convince us otherwise, this mess in the execution of public works is NOT the norm. It is perhaps the operational ceiling of a combination that among 75 candidates made sure that they did not have a single engineer. Of a mayor who, instead of relying on the highly capable local scientific workforce, chooses to appoint as his special technical associate a retired sub-engineer from remote Technical Services with a resume in overcharging, a system that has taken hold in our islands and takes the oversight of projects away from the designers who designed them so that the designs can be circumvented at will.
This situation will change. We sincerely wish, although we have given up hope, even now, that the municipal authority would listen to the proposals of our councillors, who have been calling for months for structured, scientific planning in every area. But as long as the logic of petty politics continues to be reproduced, we will at least make sure that the concerns of our fellow citizens are heard.
* For 4 months the project has been stopped and the road surface has not been restored. The EC question to the mayor was «we hope you don't tell us again that we don't pave in the winter» only to get the answer that it will be paved by the end of November. Judging by the opening of the River Stadium which the mayor was saying would be delivered in the spring of ... 2024, we still have 2 more years of «temporary inconvenience» ahead of us).
** It is not surprising but we mention it because it should not stop causing indignation to the taxpaying citizen who has entrusted at huge cost the provision of quality basic goods - such as safe roads - to the administration: as admitted in the City Council, for the very expensive sewerage project «the contractor has appointed the supervising engineer».
