Protest of restaurant owners on the island of Paros in Greece. Credit: Aris Messinis / AFP / Profimedia
The restaurant owners on the island of Greece on Thursday organized a 24 -hour closure to protest against the regulations that prevent them from using a port of the port area, AFP reports.
“There is indignation among the professionals on the island, because for five years, around 2018, they could not legally rent the coastal front” in the main port of Parikia, Costas Bizas told AFP.
The fines for the illegal occupation of the beach space have increased four times, said Bizas, who claims that the restaurants that depend on the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come annually on the island of Paros have been affected.
He claims that the government has promised to address the issue for months.
“Summer is here. There are thousands of visitors who want to enjoy their mass on the Costier Parikia front and there are other areas of Paros that have a similar problem,” the mayor added.
A restaurant owner, Nicolas Giannoulis, said that the big problem refers to a 30 -year -old alley in the beach area, where the unauthorized location of meals and chairs has been declared illegal.
“We want to pay and obtain a license” to use the table for meals, said Giannoulis (35 years). “We cannot wait every time until July or August to find out if we will be allowed to install meals during a season that starts in April or May,” he added.
“It was a great struggle to be issued our authorizations to obtain the license to use the outside spaces where we place our tables and chairs for at least 30 years,” said Olga Mira, 38 years old, who also leads a restaurant.
“The bureaucracy has changed so much that this area suddenly is no longer legal,” she says.
