Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis remained on Kastellorizo on Sunday, September 13, as his three-day visit to the easternmost island in Greece came to a close with official events marking 83 years since the island's liberation.
Mitsotakis attended the parade marking the liberation anniversary, alongside the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, Nikitas Kaklamanis. A lunch followed the ceremonies, after which the prime minister was due to depart for Athens, concluding a three-day presence that also took him to the islets of Rho and Strongyli.
Officials framed the visit as carrying a dual message: government support for residents of Greece's border islands, and a demonstration of the country's presence at the easternmost edge of its territory.
Infrastructure works and incentives to attract residents
The infrastructure projects planned for Kastellorizo, initiatives to improve public services, and incentives to draw more permanent residents to the Megisti island complex were the focus of a meeting Mitsotakis chaired at the town hall on Saturday.
Mitsotakis said the island's longstanding problems needed to be resolved within the next four years, highlighting a plan of 37 projects with a combined budget of 27 million euros covering the port, water supply, biological waste treatment and housing for doctors and teachers.
He said his commitment was clear: within the next four years, addressing the mayor and the regional governor directly, all the open issues that had burdened the island for decades needed to be resolved.
The meeting was attended by Kaklamanis, South Aegean Regional Governor Giorgos Hatzimarkos, New Democracy Dodecanese members of parliament Emmanouil Konsolas and Vasilis-Nikolaos Ypsilantis, the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff, General Dimitris Choupis, and Konstantinos Kyranakis, secretary of New Democracy's political committee.
Port and water projects worth 27 million euros
The town hall meeting also covered the government's wider plan for the island's infrastructure, with particular weight given to rebuilding the quay walls of Kastellorizo's port. Funding for that project has now been secured and it is being prioritized through Greece's ESPA program, the national vehicle for channeling European Union structural funds.
Beyond the port, the 37-project plan includes replacing critical sections of the water supply network alongside an integrated telemetry and monitoring system, along with interventions to the sewage network and the installation of treatment facilities.
The 27-million-euro program covers six areas: the energy transition, sustainable resource management, environmental protection, entrepreneurship and innovation, digital transformation and strengthening the island's workforce.
Housing for doctors, teachers and public employees
Officials also discussed initiatives to house public employees who serve, or will serve, on the island. The Ministry of National Defence is currently building 12 homes, part of which will go to health and education staff, while the Hellenic Coast Guard has begun work on nine further homes for its own personnel. The Ministry of National Defence is also repairing four homes, funded by the Hellenic Parliament.
Separately, the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family is transferring 19 stremmata, about 4.7 acres, of land to the municipality, where 30 old homes that have been declared unfit for habitation will be replaced with new housing. Funding will come from the Ministry of Interior, with the project's preparation handled through the state's asset development fund, known as the Growthfund.
Health service improvements on the island
Before the town hall meeting, Mitsotakis visited the Multipurpose Regional Clinic of Megisti, where he was briefed on the unit's capabilities and the emphasis being placed on quality healthcare.
Alongside regular visits by a cardiologist and a pediatrician from the Rhodes Health Center, the recruitment of a director of general and family medicine and a director of internal medicine is being finalized, with a stipend funded by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, the charity established by easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou. A notice for two nursing positions is expected to be published soon.
At the town hall, the prime minister discussed the port, infrastructure projects, energy issues, housing and incentives for public employees with local officials.
Mitsotakis, accompanied by Kaklamanis, General Choupis and Hatzimarkos, also visited surveillance outposts and spoke with armed forces personnel and conscripts stationed there.
First joint visit to the islets of Rho and Strongyli
On Saturday morning, Mitsotakis visited the small islets of Rho and Strongyli together for the first time. He said the government stood beside the Megisti island complex so that it could continue to prosper and so that more permanent residents could be drawn to it.
On Rho, he was briefed on a new pier and shown around the outpost's newly built central building, restaurant and kitchens, and saw newly constructed guesthouses for the armed forces.
'We must close every open front,' Mitsotakis says
Following the town hall meeting, Mitsotakis thanked the mayor and his team for what he called a substantive discussion, and said he was especially glad to be in Kastellorizo ahead of the following day's important commemoration.
He said the meeting had taken stock of the significant outstanding infrastructure issues facing the island, repeating his four-year commitment to resolve them.
He said many projects were in the preparatory stage, singling out the restoration of the port, a definitive resolution to the biological treatment and water management issues, the need to provide quality housing to public employees willing to settle in Kastellorizo, and a series of projects with a significant environmental footprint, including zero-waste management and the integration of renewable energy through photovoltaic panels to support the island's electricity supply.
He said central government was coordinating closely with the mayor and the regional governor on all these projects, and that the Speaker of Parliament and the Hellenic Parliament would generously fund the restoration of some spaces and homes so that, by next summer, doctors choosing to come to Kastellorizo could at least be housed in dignified, quality conditions. He said the remaining details would be discussed the following day.
Mitsotakis said the government stood beside the Megisti island complex to ensure it kept prospering, kept attracting permanent residents and kept developing, particularly to give young people from Kastellorizo the chance to live and build a future in a place with such distinctive historical weight.
Pointing to an old photograph, he asked the mayor when it was taken. Mayor of Megisti Nikolaos Asvestis told him it dated from 1917, during the period of French administration.
Mitsotakis recalled that Kastellorizo once had more than 10,000 permanent residents, and said the goal now was clear and specific: to attract more permanent population to the island. He said the government would use every means available to achieve it.
Asvestis thanked the prime minister, the Speaker of Parliament, Hatzimarkos and the local MPs, describing the talks as constructive. He said Mitsotakis would announce in the coming hours the details of what had been discussed and which funding programs the municipality intended to pursue further.
Wreath for the 'Lady of Rho' and a visit to a Navy vessel
The prime minister laid a wreath at the monument to the "Lady of Rho," a reference to Despina Achladioti, who for decades raised the Greek flag daily on the islet of Rho and became a national symbol of Greek presence in the area. He also visited her house, which has since been turned into a museum.
Mitsotakis was also accompanied by New Democracy's Dodecanese MPs Giannis Pappas, Emmanouil Konsolas, Mika Iatridi and Vasilis-Nikolaos Ypsilantis.
The prime minister additionally visited the Hellenic Navy's fast missile patrol boat "Lieutenant Commander Grigoropoulos," which is stationed in Kastellorizo.
