In the depth of August, when the cicadas sing and the sun burns bright, Archilochos cultural centre on Paros is not usually a hive of activity. If anything, that is reserved for the bars and beaches of a Cycladic isle increasingly drawing le beau monde.
But last week, as Greece’s great summer exodus peaked, the Archilochos was alive to the sound of debate. And, as in weeks gone past, it was a debate ignited by the state of play on the beaches that have become synonymous with pricey sunbeds and greedy entrepreneurs.
“Ours is a battle against lawlessness – lawlessness on our shores,” says Christos Georgousis, a founding member of the Save Paros Beaches movement.
At 78, Georgousis might ordinarily be enjoying retirement. Instead, the bespectacled former headmaster, a respected figure on the island, has found himself leading the battle to ensure that beaches are free for all.
“The state, with its police force and coastguard, should be solving this because, after all, our seashore belongs to the public,” he adds. “But since it has proved to be ineffective in dealing even with sunbeds, we are handling it ourselves.”
From its inception, the protest movement has had a single aim: to reclaim beaches from private rental outfits hogging prime coastal areas with exorbitantly-priced sun loungers and shadings. The takeover, which has seen enterprises charge as much as €120 (£102) for sunbeds on Paros, has been described as unconstitutional in a country where the protection of the natural and cultural environment is enshrined in law as “a duty of the state and a right of every person”.
Often, campaigners contend, there is no space to spread out a towel or beach mat because of the paraphernalia deposited on beaches by business interests, with those who dare to complain being shooed away. For many, the root of the problem lies in murky concession agreements that allow local authorities to lease shoreline to hoteliers and bar and restaurant owners provided, in theory, they exploit only 50% of the allocated space.
“In practice, there is often not an inch of sand left,” says Nicholas Stephanou, a longtime Paros resident, lamenting a situation that has made it increasingly impossible for locals to enjoy what has always been taken for granted: free access to the beach. “We’re talking about public space that is almost 100% covered by [rented] sunbeds and umbrellas.”
Recently, Stephanou, 70, used his skills as a web designer to prove his point, superimposing the coordinates of assigned areas “contracted out” over aerial images taken by drones. The infractions were as alarming as they were blatant. While more than 7,000 square metres were legally licensed to concession holders, sunbeds and umbrellas occupied an area of 18,800 square metres.
“It was shocking,” he says. “In almost every case there was illegal expansion beyond leased zones. One company, which has leased 16 metres of beach space, had spread sunbeds over 1,000 metres.”
The campaign has touched a nerve. What had been a local initiative, highlighting the concerns of development on Paros, has now turned into a grassroots revolt, indicative of the fears more generally over Greece’s trajectory to becoming one of the planet’s most popular tourist destinations.
Turbocharged by social media, the so-called “beach towel movement” has spread. In recent weeks, protests have been held in Halkidiki in the north and the Ionian isles in the west as reports of rental companies obstructing free access to beaches have mounted.
Elisavet Papazoi, a socialist former minister of the Aegean and erstwhile governor of the Cycladic island chain, told the Observer the movement had struck a chord partly because of the Greeks’ primal relationship with the sea and the fact that privately-run beaches went against the “very essence” of freedoms associated with the Greek summer, but also because it exposed the lawlessness that underpinned runaway development in the tourist-reliant country.
In Paros, where investment funds had arrived, just as they had in the adjacent island of Mykonos, hotels that were aesthetically at odds and out of scale with the island’s architecture were now being built, she said.
“It’s not just that the sea is in our DNA and we consider it a given that [the shoreline] is free to us all,” she said, calling the campaign the first “real revolt” Greece has seen since the end of its decade-long debt crisis. “And it’s not just that [the takeover of beaches] places limits on the summer as we know it. People are fed up with lawlessness. They want development but they don’t want development that is limitless and unchecked, and they’re willing to mobilise to do what the state should do – which is ensure the rule of law.”
In a nation increasingly forced to confront over-tourism and the challenges posed for sustainability – Greece is on course to attract three times its population this year – the centre-right government in Athens has also had to take action. Last week, the finance ministry announced that 2,230 inspections had been conducted in the face of the furore, with violations confirmed at 749 locales.
Penalties, it said, had been meted out, with legislation lined up to make the concession of coastal areas to enterprises “more modern and transparent”. On Friday, the police went further, announcing 22 arrests of people found to be in violation of concession agreements on Mykonos, Paros and Rhodes.
Acknowledging the need to protect Greece’s natural beauty as the economy returns to growth, the minister of state, Akis Skertsos, conceded that allowing businesses to take over beaches was not only “greedy and destructive” but tantamount to “shooting ourselves in the foot”.
But Greeks are mindful that they have been here before. Tellingly, sun loungers removed from the shoreline as inspectors visited the Cycladic island of Naxos earlier this month reappeared as soon as they had left.
“Lawlessness is not just on our beaches,” said Georgousi. The constitution’s final provision, he noted, stipulates that it is the patriotic duty of Greeks “to resist by all possible means” when [legislation] is broken. “The action we have taken, protesting with banners on the sand, has actually been quite tame.”
Protesters are to rally again on Sunday and regroup – as they have done throughout the summer – at the Archilochos cultural centre. “Our citizens’ movement is not going away,” said the retired headmaster. “The battle to save our beaches is going to continue.”
