Just one day before the scheduled special meeting of the Kythera Municipal Council for the accountability of the municipal authority, the President of the House Mr. Konstantinos Kapsalis announced the cancellation the procedure, pleading «force majeure» due to the serious illness of the Secretary General of the Municipality and the consequent inability of the services to prepare the required replies.
The meeting, which was set for Friday, August 29, 2025 at 16:00, would have been -according to the law- the mandatory time of accountability of the mayor and the municipal authority to the citizens. As the original invitation explained, the procedure was accounting issues and councillors were invited to submit up to one item each.
The «hot» questions about the fire
What gives weight to the cancellation is that at least three councillors had asked questions about the catastrophic fire of 26-28 July:
- Mr. Panayiotis Megalokonomos («All Together, Kythira - Antikythera») had tabled a question on the overall fire management report.
- The independent consultant Nikolaos Magoulas asked for a presentation of timeline, activation of the TESOPP, participants, decisions, details on air and ground assets, and the proceedings of the July 31 meeting with the Deputy Minister of Maritime Affairs.
- Mr. George Stratigos, a member of the municipal majority, had asked a question about the report preventive fire protection actions before the fire, asking for detailed tables of funding, contractors, IDAs and areas cleared.
Three different councillors, from three different starting points, called for a public account of the most critical disaster to hit the island in recent years.
The President's statement
In his decision (no. 4147/27.08.2025), the Chairman of the Board relies on:
- the serious illness of the Secretary General of the Municipality,
- the need to divide its tasks among a small number of officials,
- urgent recruitment procedures (e.g. school cleaners) with binding deadlines,
- the inability of the services to gather answers to the questions in time.
It concludes that «force majeure» makes it impossible to hold the meeting, which will be rescheduled «in due course».
Questions about the cancellation
The cancellation, however, raises serious questions:
- Why does accountability depend on the presence of a single official?;
- Is the illness of an executive really a reason of “force majeure” or is it a pretext to avoid discussion?;
- Why did the City fail to ensure timely collection and filing of data on critical events such as the fire, when a month has passed since then?;
There are many who believe that the cancellation is intended to avoid public responses for the fire, which burned large areas and left dozens of people affected.
Institutional obligation
According to the law, the special accountability meeting is required and cannot be omitted without good reason. Its annulment, even temporarily, constitutes an institutional precedent that effectively nullifies citizens' right to transparency and accountability.
The next step
The President pledged that the meeting would be rescheduled «as soon as conditions permit». However, the issue remains: when and how will official answers to the fire be provided?;
For now, citizens are left without clear explanations, while the municipal authority seems to be missing a historic opportunity to rise to the occasion.
