Not content with letting rich tourists take over public beaches in violation of the Constitution Greece now is letting them set fires too.

That’s – allegedly – what happened on the rich-friendly island of Hydra, where the late Canadian singer Leonard Cohen, who famously sang, “The poor stay poor, the rich get rich” had a home, and where yachts dock in the tiny harbor.

No vehicles are allowed there, the wealthy not wanting noise, and to keep away the hoi polloi and the great unwashed who can only stand and gawk at the yachts – no touching please.

It’s one of the most idyllic Greek islands increasingly being taken over by luxury resorts further confiscating beaches and relegating the common man to lesser spots, with the blessing of the government.

There was even a pine forest there until – allegedly – a group of 17 rich Kazakhs who rented a superyacht to take them island hopping (it goes for 249,000 euros ($286,888) a week, or what they call pocket change reportedly went ashore.

It’s unclear what happened, because that’s the way the government and police want to keep it as they want to protect the rich at all costs – to you. But confusing and contradictory reports indicated that fireworks were set off, on the island or off the boat, and a fire proceeded to burn 300 acres of the only pine forest there.

This happened during a heat wave and high fire alert with dozens of fires burning around the country, and set off outrage on the island and on social media which accused the rich of burning the island, which of course is what happened.

Apparently the Coast Guard and police didn’t get the memo about fire dangers because they let the yacht, the Persefoni I, go back to Athens’ southern coast and didn’t detain, nor question the Kazkahs, and more likely bowed and saluted them.

But somebody has to pay, and just as the government has done in charging activists with human trafficking for pulling refugees out of the sea – some, witnesses said being tossed into the water with their hands tied by shadowy people on Coast Guard vessels and left to drown – scapegoats were needed in this case.

They sure as hell weren’t going to be the oligarchs on the boat, media reports alleging they had ties to a former president who was corrupt, which is hard to keep track of in Kazakhstan, and associated with the state-run oil company.

Kazakhstan is the second biggest supplier of oil to Greece, and none of these guys on board were going to be charged, so the police, trying to wipe egg off their face at the same they were speaking out of both sides of their mouth, had a solution.

Let’s charge the Captain, First Officer, and crew members who were on the yacht while the Kazakhs – allgedly – were on the island burning it down. Yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket, let’s charge the crew! That’s the modus operandi for this government.

So now the government, which had charged eight Egyptian survivors with causing a refugee shipwreck that killed hundreds, blamed by witnesses on the Coast Guard attaching a rope to tow it further out to sea to sink somewhere else, wants you to believe that the Captain and crew on board the yacht were also on the island setting off fireworks.

Borat apparently wasn’t among the Kazakhs or he could have had a ready explanation, although none was needed because all the oligarchs had to do was strut off the boat and go back home.

Safely there, and with the government feeling the heat from the forest fire while hunting down arsonists around the country setting off blazes without fireworks, they were only then hit with arson charges that can’t stick because they’re not coming back. But hey, they were charged so the government’s off the hook, right?

Greece didn’t even name the suspects because none of them were from SYRIZA or PASOK, so it was left up to investigative news outlets outside the country to do so, and one of the businessmen, Daniyar Abulgazin, denied they had set the fire.

Greek police, who let Croatian soccer hooligans into the country in the summer of 2023, which led to riots with Greek soccer fans that killed Michalis Katsouris – stabbed and no one charged – said it wasn’t their place to question the Kazakhs.

There was time to question the Captain and crew, of course, but that’s only temporary because just as Greek courts let the innocent Egyptians go, the same will happen here once the furor dies down and another scandal erupts.

Prosecutors in Greece said they uncovered evidence after a forensic investigator and others reported that firefighters had found remnants of fireworks in the cove where it was believed the fire started, but it doesn’t matter because the Kazakhs won’t be prosecuted.