If taxes go up, even more young people will leave, warns Mayor Kakali, who has devoted her year in office to improving education on the island to help keep it an attractive place for families. Because it is one of the smallest islands, Agios Efstratios has until 2017 before the rise is due to come in, so Kakali hopes that the roller coaster of Greek politics means it yet may be spared. If not, though, she plans to travel to Athens to remind the distant government what the tax rise would cost. “The truth is the government doesn’t pay much attention to the islands of the north Aegean,” she said, “so I would take all the kids from our school to the gates of parliament, to tell them: ‘There is still life in these islands’.”
Why wasn’t Agios Efstratios one of the first islands to pay taxes?
Because it is one of the smallest islands in Greece Because in 2017 Kakali changed the island’s political situation Because it is a north Aegean island Because it is a relatively poor islan