Professor Akis Tselentis, one of the top seismologists in Greece and former director of the Geodynamics Institute of the National Observatory of Athens, submitted his resignation from the National Seismic Risk Assessment Committee on Tuesday.
In a letter to the committee’s president Professor Efthymios Lekkas and to Secretary General for Civil Protection Vasilis Papageorgiou.
In the letter, Tselentis said the reason for his resignation was that he could “not accept the political leadership arbitrarily imposing the participation in the [seismic risk committee’s] meetings of additional members without this having been published in the Government Gazette.”
“We are a committee elected using scientific criteria, who represent our organizations that are in the Government Gazette. Such political interventions devalue our role,” he added.
Commenting on his resignation, Sources within the Climate Crisis and Civil Protection ministry refuted Tselentis’ claims of “irregularity” and accused him of promoting his “personal agenda.”
“The composition and operation of the Seismic Risk Committee, as that of the Committee for Monitoring the Greek Volcanic Arc, is absolutely legal and have as their chief criteria the scientific and thorough examination of the phenomena and, following this, the fullest and most accurate provision of information to the citizens. We will not go into or comment on anything beyond that. The personal agendas of every person, at such a time, should not be anyone’s concern,” the ministry sources commented according to state-run news agency amna.gr
Political grandstanding, by useless politicians is a world problem, not just for a select few.
This is not political grandstanding: it is about nepotism on scientific committees. Tselentis’s complaint is about the relatives of leading politicians being placed on the committee, rather than selection of the top scientists.
Of course, this is a time-honoured tradition of Greeks — putting their relatives and friends into top jobs. Essentially, Greece is an anti-meritocracy, where a high level of ability gets you nowhere. This is why the most skilled Greeks emigrate, and return perhaps in retirement. And Mitsotakis wonders why Greece lacks innovation, high levels of achievement, or a properly functioning economy. Or perhaps he does not really wonder at all: this is just for show.