The mayor of Paxos, mr Spyros Bogdanos proposed the foundation of a new cemetery in the public hearing of 16th of June 2009. During his speech he commented on the fact that every people are judged upon the tribute they offer to their dead and he expressed the opinion that Paxos society has always highly respected its dead. He then continued by stating that during the last years there has been a serious population increase on our island not only of Greeks but also of people of various nationalities and religions. “We are an open, progressive society that loves to integrate”, he said. Among other things we also need a decent burial ground for all. Locals have their family tombs. New inhabitants however, whether they are Greek, foreign, Christians or Muslims etc, who wish to live and die on our island, need a decent solution to their problem. We owe them the same amount of respect. We should never leave space enough to create getos of any kind. After also discussing the matter with Archbishop Nektarios and with local authorities, we all agreed there is a dire necessity to create a new, well equipped cemetery, with areal zones for every faith, which will cover our island’s contemporary needs without deactivating the use of the existing cemeteries”. The Local Council finally decided to create a committee to investigate appropriate land areas and to study the existing requirement laws and they will soon bring to open public discussion their proposals.