Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis defended his government on Thursday as public anger grew over the response to wildfires that have ripped through thousands of hectares of forest over the past 10 days.
“Our policy of organized evacuations worked. Homes were burned but no community was destroyed,” he said, among others.
He pledged to take a series of steps, from acquiring more firefighting aircraft to overhauling forestry management.
“The climate crisis is here and is showing us that everything must change. The facts demand bold solutions for which I am ready,” he added,
Our top priority during natural disasters is and will be the protection of the life, both of human and of animals” he added.
“My personal engagement is to rebuild what has been destroyed. The compensations will start being disbursed in the next days. The negative experience of the disaster to become a positive power for change” he said.
“I apologised to the citizens and I did it because I felt it as a personal need” Mitsotakis said however, for one more time he refrained from listing shortfalls of the policcal leadership and state mechanism that led to a disaster with thousands of hectares of burned down forest and agricultural land – not to mention the houses, the livestock and the wildlife.
“We have taken already some lessons and the responsibilities that can be personalised will be attributed at the right time and surely not at the time of the battle. The responsibilities do not concern only persons and should not be attributed in the heat of the moment,” he said.
Mitsotakis said that the request for support from other countries was submitted immediately when the reality showed that the condition was beyond “our powers.”
Asked on the effectiveness of the fire prevention plan announced before the recent wildfires, Mitsotakis said that “we are judged from the result. Last year we had only a few fires but this year we experienced what we experienced.”
He added that “the heatwave that prevailed in the country was unprecedented and turned Greece into a powder keg with result all the wildfires that broke out, maybe not all by accident, 600 wildfires broke out in a period of 7 days. Next year we will be better. Ι can’t cancel the preparation that has been made but the phenomenon was beyond our powers and the level of our preparation.”
Asked if there was an arson plan, the PM said that this is something that the justice will investigate. “It is certain that all the fires did not broke out by accident but I do not have the evidence to say if it was an organized plan”.
On speculations claiming that the burnt areas will favour the change of use of land and the real estate investments in Tatoi and that the wildfire on Evia are linked with wind turbines, Mitsotakis said that this discussion is totally groundless because the Constitution provides the immediate reforestation of the burnt areas.
He committed himself to rebuild and restore everything that was burned and destroyed.
PS After the presser, opposition parties lashed out at the PM and so did a large part of Greeks on social media. In fire-stricken areas, there is only anger. over handling of the fires. And this long before the presser. In fact, since Day One, when nature lit a huge firelighter in Greece, should we believe the PM.
he’s got his grammar a bit confused. it was an attack _on_ nature.. and the ‘investors’ are rubbing their hand impatient to start moving in now that their way is unobstructed by inconvenient forests and the locals are preoccupied with rebuilding their homes from ashes.
he’s a criminal.
“ATTACK BY THE NATURE” ???
What stupid statement.
Nature has NOT SET ITSELF on fire to harm us
No. Payback for an attack on nature by human greed, incompetence, ignorance and hubris.
Quite convenient this climate change is to Politicians, can blame it instead of their lack of foresight. I also wonder how many of these fires were man made or human started?
Just like the viruses, that are attacking us. Thank the Lord, we got the injection to kill the virus. I guess we have to find a way to fight back and kill that damn nature, now!