NEWS

Islanders may boycott polls

Some 2,000 residents of Fournoi, a small complex of islands in the Aegean, have threatened to boycott next month’s elections to protest the suspension of a direct shipping connection between their communities and the country’s main port of Piraeus. The problem first came to the fore when it emerged that the vessels of GA Ferries, which had been serving the islands, are to be repossessed due to the firm’s alleged debts to fuel providers. According to the mayor of Fournoi, Yiannis Marousis, the islands were «deserted» for most of June and July due to the suspension. «A would-be visitor faces a small odyssey to get to Fournoi – seven hours on a ferry from Piraeus to Icaria, a 30-euro taxi ride to the island’s Aghios Kirykos port, then a one-and-a-half-hour boat ride,» Marousis said. Authorities are believed to be considering a stopgap solution of one of the ferries serving nearby Icaria and Samos also stopping off at Fournoi once a week.

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