Greece’s “beach mafia” is running rampant

Vacation and free time

Recently, unusual photos appeared on Santa Maria beach, north of Paros. With towels and banners, the inhabitants of the Greek island went ashore. In front of the tourists, they chanted “We take back our beaches” and “Save the beaches”.

Various media outlets soon reported on the event. This is what the “towel movement” is about, which also found its way to other Greek islands.

Companies pave the beaches with sunbeds and umbrellas

On the beaches of Paros and other Greek islands, entrepreneurs fill up with beach chairs and umbrellas — even if they’ve only rented part of the beach.

The citizens of Paros fend for themselves against the cobbled beaches.Photo: O Kaplan/Dr

“The law states that no beach can be used for more than half,” Paros resident Nicholas Stefano told state broadcaster ERT. “But there are great discrepancies.” Some rented 16 square meters of beach from the municipality and then packed 500 square meters with parasols and sunbeds for a fee.Stefano reported.

In between: There’s hardly room to lie down by the water with your own towel – so without the huge costs. However, chairs and umbrellas, which are rented to tourists at a high cost, mean huge costs. For the rich among them perhaps that is possible. However, it is not for local families who want to spend a day at the beach.

And it seems to be getting worse for them. One of the founders of the Paros Citizens Movement for Free Beaches described, They had received complaints from residents who were afraid because they wanted to spread their towels on the sand next to the deck chairs.

The population resists responding – the prosecutor’s office is also getting involved

They no longer want to accept the situation and protest. Other islanders took the action as a model. The “towel movement” spread. On Rhodes, the Halkidiki peninsula, Corfu, Kefalonia, Mykonos and Santorini, people resist the expensive and sprawling beach furniture.

Local residents are not fighting alone against the “beach mafia”, as the operators are called. At the beginning of May, at the start of the summer season, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Greek Supreme Court called on prosecutors across the country to take drastic measures. “Greek law does not recognize private beaches,” she said.

It is said that there are controls on almost all holiday islands. However, along with its islands, Greece has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean Sea at about 14,000 km. Accordingly, the controls are just a drop in the bucket. Manal Reported on the island of Naxos Many deck chairs and umbrellas were removed by the operators before the controls and put back in immediately afterwards.

(with materials from dpa)