An app will save us

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis discusses with ministers the rollout of a mobile exertion called ‘MyStreet,’ which allows citizens to study the amerciable concern of nationalist spaces by businesses, successful Athens, Greece, connected August 27, 2025. [Dimitris Papamitsos/Prime Minister's Press Office]

Finally! Order will beryllium restored to our streets and squares! At slightest that is what the premier curate claimed astatine the motorboat of MyStreet, the exertion “through which you tin submit a ailment to the competent municipality if you announcement amerciable placement of tables and chairs successful nationalist areas, but the coast.”

The crushed that this app excludes the seashore is due to the fact that that country is covered by different app, MyCoast, which invites citizens to submit a study connected businesses encroaching connected beaches with sunbeds, umbrellas and chairs. MyStreet is an improvement of MyCoast, arsenic Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou said, “with which past summertime we managed to bring bid to the beaches, not so overmuch with the astir 2,500 inspections [carried out], but with the feeling among professionals that there is simply a third eye, the citizens, who came retired to assertion their escaped entree to the beaches.”

In short, there is an authoritative admittance that the competent services – the Urban Planning Department, the Land Service, the municipalities, the police, the seashore guard, the decentralized administrations – were not susceptible capable to enforce the instrumentality connected the coast. It is the citizen-superman, who, among his galore different troubles, has besides taken implicit the relation of inspecting the nationalist space. Because helium can.

The archetypal information are σύντομα expected to beryllium published by the ministry connected however galore reports MyCoast has “already received,” careless of however galore of them were really morganatic oregon were addressed by the authorities. The fig of complaints is gradually becoming identical with action, with solving the problem. That’s however we “solved” the occupation of schoolhouse violence and bullying with the stop-bullying.gov.gr platform. That’s however we prevented fires, by reporting uncleaned plots of onshore connected akatharista.apps.gov.gr. Isn’t this besides however we managed to solve the occupation of businesses issuing fake receipts? Just by scanning the QR codes done the Appodixi application.

“So that we tin further trim tax rates,” Minister of State Akis Skertsos wrote successful 2022. “The much nationalist revenues increase, the much we tin trim tax rates successful important categories of goods for each household’s basket.”

Alas, ultimately, not everything is successful our hands. Many of the caller integer tools person so been incredibly utile for citizens, such arsenic Gov.gr Wallet oregon MyHealth. The popularity of others, such arsenic eVivlio (critics accidental the contented is not updated), and MyErgani, which is progressing very slowly and concerns constricted sectors, has been overmuch much limited.

In immoderate case, idiosyncratic responsibility, which became a cardinal authorities communicative during the pandemic, and rightly so, cannot go a imperishable strategy and alibi. Nor tin the improvement of apps for each imaginable occupation regenerate the improvement of policies, arsenic if there were a parallel integer Greece where problems vanish with a click, the sunbeds are removed, on with the tables and chairs, businessmen comply, and violence subsides.

On that integer Greece, we’re doing well.