New Year's message from the Mayor of Kythira – Antikythira

Kythirians – Kythirians

Antikythera – Antikytherians

Friends of our islands

Happy New Year!

One year has passed into history and a new one has just dawned, prompting each of us to take stock and make plans for the coming year. A review of our work for 2025 would require many pages, as our projects and actions are numerous, and because I do not want to bore you, I will limit myself to the most important ones:

• In 2025, our municipality saw new projects added by the Region: Slaughterhouse (€2,728,000), Potamos Redevelopment (€1,400,000), Potamos Theater (€950,000), while the new Nursery in Logothetianika, which had been included in the Region's budget, was recently transferred to the Attica Regional Operational Program with an amount of €400,000 and will be put out to tender within the next two months. These important projects will be put out to tender by our Municipality following Programmatic Agreements that I will sign with the Regional Governor in the coming months.
• We signed the contract for the development of cruises on our island, following the certification of the Port of Kapsali as an International Cruise Port. For the first time, our municipality has adopted a comprehensive policy in this area with the aim of attracting exclusive and VIP cruises with high income.
• We are completing the major project of the South Kythira sewerage system, with a budget of €28,000,000, a project that few believed in and many mocked, but which is now being built and will be operational in the coming months, solving a major environmental problem for our region.
• We have almost completed (pending formal approval of the receiver by the Archaeological Service) the studies for the sewerage network – WWTP of the Northern Part of Kythira, which will be presented to the public in the coming months.
• We have completed the renovation and enhancement of the Potamos Urban School.
• We are completing the conversion of the municipal properties in Mitata into a modern cultural center, cinema club, and open-air theater.
• We resolved the issue of relocating the Kythira Police Station to the former Provincial Administration building, achieving a monthly rent of €2,000 and freeing up the existing building, which, together with the neighboring Vitzamanios School, will be converted into an exhibition space/museum (contracted project).
• We promoted major water supply projects: new networks across the island, transport of desalinated water from Kapsali to Spilia, Xeroniamata, and Kalamo, funding for the transfer of desalinated water from Diakofto to Skli and from Kapsali to Chora, and new boreholes.
• We have completed the new project for telemetry and remote management of water supply infrastructure.
• We commissioned three new desalination plants: Paleopolis, Kapsali, and Antikythira.
• We have completed two new sports fields: Potamos and Frilingianika. Our island now has three legally licensed sports facilities.
• We certified nine new playgrounds.
• We strongly support extroversion and promotion by investing in actions that promote alternative forms of tourism, which not only extend the tourist season but also bring high-income visitors to the island.
• We have already received the first funding for the fire-stricken areas and the relevant projects will start soon (water supply, road construction), while anti-erosion and flood prevention measures have begun in record time.
• We are completing six major port studies for the upgrading of all our ports in Kythira and Antikythira, including the marina at Piso Gialos Kapsali, which will put our island on the yachting map, generating new income and new jobs.
• We have finally resolved the long-standing issue of legalizing the ports in our municipality with the recent legislative regulation, paving the way for improvements to port infrastructure and new projects.
• We have begun and will complete in the coming months the new regulations on water supply, sewerage, cleaning, public spaces, advertising, etc., which our municipality must have in order to respond to current circumstances.
• We are completing the impressive redevelopment of Avlemonas, a project that was also ridiculed but is now accepted by everyone.
• After many years (through no fault of our own), we are moving forward with the recruitment of new permanent staff to the Municipality through ASEP.
• We worked closely with the contractor consortium to develop the Local Urban Plan, a development tool for the future of our region, demanding realistic approaches aimed at protecting the property and character of Kythira and Antikythira.
• We have completed the major redevelopment of the Antikythera River and the repair of the island's port.
• We began the redevelopment in Kypriotianika, demonstrating our interest in small settlements in practice.
• We held a major two-day international conference on tourism, which received widespread publicity throughout Greece and demonstrated our genuine interest in the relationship between tourism and infrastructure.
• We are completing major studies for new development projects: Indoor gym in Chora with underground parking, redevelopment of Chora, new water supply projects, new road construction projects, renovation of municipal properties in Mylopotamos, restoration of the Karava Girls' School.
• We are promoting a Pan-Hellenic Architectural Competition for the redevelopment plans of Agia Pelagia.
• We have completed the studies for converting the Chora Meteorological Station into a Meteorological Museum (the only one of its kind in Greece), which we will submit to the new LEADER program.
• Our proposal for the conclusion of multi-year contracts for unprofitable coastal shipping routes has been accepted. The new contracts will have a duration of four years, ensuring stability.
• We actively participated in every collective action of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE), we were constantly present in the Ministries and services, vigorously demanding what we believe our region needs.
• We continued to provide food and housing allowances to rural doctors.
• We have established the provision of food and housing allowances for substitute teachers.

At the dawn of each new year, feelings of joy, hope, and anticipation prevail. For me and my colleagues, whom you have honored three times in a row with your vote, each new year is yet another period of responsibility and work. Because there are no easy solutions for anything. The days when things were easy and simple in local government are now over. The foolish view that «projects will be carried out regardless of who is mayor» is not only wrong but also naive. Every project, every action, requires time, bureaucracy, and coordination between many relevant services, which is anything but easy in the Greek reality. I will give you just one example: on October 24, 2024 (yes, 2024!), we submitted the restoration study file for the Chora Meteorological Station to the Archaeological Service for approval, so that we could obtain the building permit and be fully ready for the financing program. To date, 14 whole months later, approval has not been granted and the only action taken was the transfer of the file from the Piraeus Archaeological Service to the Attica Local Council of Monuments on July 9, 2025! At this rate and with these practices, however, no project will move forward, not only in Kythira, but throughout Greece.

With these thoughts in mind, I wish everyone a new year full of happy moments. With health, joy, and prosperity. With truth and passion for progress and creation. Let us isolate every voice of populism, nihilism, and misguidance, wherever it comes from. Because populism is easy, especially when expressed by people who have no position of responsibility and zero management experience, but it is extremely dangerous when it influences ordinary citizens and convinces them that there are beautiful and easy solutions for everything «angelic and lovingly crafted.» After all, we saw where populism can lead when we experienced its consequences about 10 years ago, so that today we can all say «thanks, but no thanks.».

I promise that in 2026, my colleagues and I will continue to work exactly as we have been doing since 2014. With determination and knowledge, with experience and ambition. Against falsehoods, meaningless accusations, and populist practices, which in the end no one remembers.

Happy New Year!

Eustratios Ath. Charhalakis

Mayor of Kythira & Antikythira