Although only a few weeks old, the towel movement has already achieved a lot, contributing greatly to the “liberation” of hundreds of square meters on the beaches of the Cyclades, but also elsewhere. On its website, Spiegel hosts an interview with Michalis Kyriasanos, one of the 14,000 members of the movement in Paros.

In a report with the reasonable title “Who owns the beaches of Greece?” Kyriasanos explains that the goal of the movement is “for beach bars to comply with the law. […] But the issue does not only concern the beaches.” On the contrary, “it is about the viability, the survival of the entire island. Paros is one of the most expensive islands, rents and the cost of living have increased significantly. Will the island remain a sustainable place or will Paros become a kind of amusement park, which will only operate for the three summer months?”

For his part, the mayor of Paros blamed the movement that he has political ambitions. But to this Kyriasanos replies that “the issue concerns the public space, our rights – of course it is political! After all, the mayor was jointly responsible for this misery. Because the task of control rests with the municipality, which must report violations to the Ministry of Finance. But they did no such thing. In recent years there have been no checks at all. He also did not respond to our protests. Now we are communicating directly with the ministry, which can impose sanctions and collect the sunbeds.”

Finally, when asked if the action of the towel movement will stop at the end of the summer, Kyriasanos estimates that the opposite may even happen: “In winter the island is empty. Then we islanders will be able to meet and get along much better. We are currently in contact with similar movements throughout Greece. We want to design joint initiatives and develop ideas so that public space can be more effectively protected from privatization.”