All Together: «The Worst City Council President Since Its Inception»

The municipal faction «All Together, Kythera - Antikythera» filed a press release with criticisms about the operation of the Kythera Municipal Council and the role of its President. In its statement, the faction raises issues of institutional operation, compliance with procedures and transparency, referring to serious omissions in recent times.

At the same time, it refers to delays, non-convening of meetings and problems in the management of accountability and information of the City Council. The full content of her points is set out in the press release below.

PRESS RELEASE

«All Together, Kythera - Antikythera»

The worst City Council President of the City since its inception

The municipal faction «All Together, Kythira - Antikythera» is not used to personal attacks. But when the institutional function of the highest collective body of the Municipality collapses, silence constitutes complicity.

In 2025, the President of the City Council, Mr. Konstantinos Kapsalis, failed miserably to perform his institutional role. Three meetings of the City Council that should have been held were never held, without sufficient justification and in violation of the obligation to convene the body. The culmination of this practice was the fact that the President stifled accountability in July and August, depriving the community and the Councillors of the opportunity to raise and answer, on time and while the facts were still fresh, the burning questions concerning the great fire and the responsibilities that accompanied it.

At the same time, for twenty-five months, letters from bodies, citizens and individuals have not been forwarded to the City Council, with the result that the collective body is deprived of knowledge on critical issues. An official letter addressed institutionally on this issue was not answered by the President, the Mayor or the Administration, but an anonymous email was sent by the so-called «Mayor's private office». This practice goes beyond any institutional boundaries and degrades the functioning of the municipality to unacceptable levels.

A serious issue also arises in the management of questions from Councillors. There are questions that have gone well beyond the thirty days without any response, which shows that neither the procedure nor the correspondence is being adequately monitored to meet the legal deadlines. This recurrent delay effectively distorts the institutional function of control and accountability.

At the same time, minutes and transcripts of meetings are not delivered signed, depriving the City Council of the institutional and legal security it requires. The technical recording of meetings has been reduced to a crude web-based system, with inadequate sound and images, which does not allow for a faithful record of the proceedings. While other municipalities have integrated recording systems, the Municipality of Kythera, although it had them in the past, has abolished them, which raises legitimate questions as to who is not served by a clear and unambiguous recording of meetings.

The role of the opposition in a City Council is institutional, controlling and absolutely necessary for the democratic functioning of the Municipality. For the first time, the Municipality has a real, active and effective opposition, which performs its duties with knowledge, documentation and consistency, exactly as the law requires. The inability of the administration and the President to respond to a tough but perfectly legal scrutiny cannot be passed on as a liability to those who properly perform their role. When the opposition does its job, it inevitably reveals who is not doing theirs.

The President of the City Council is not a decorative role. He is a guarantor of democratic functioning, transparency and accountability. In view of the above, the overall picture that has emerged leaves no room for misinterpretation. By acts and omissions, the current President is unfortunately proving to be the worst President of the City Council since the establishment of the Municipality.

We call on the President of the City Council to respond, even now, with responsibility and democratic respect to the role and the institution of the President. If this is not possible, the only institutionally consistent option is his resignation.

As in any democracy, when institutional control is a nuisance, the problem is not the control, but the one being controlled.

The present judgment is formulated exclusively at the political level and concerns only the exercise of political and institutional functions, in the context of legitimate political control and democratic criticism.