Floods and fires in Greece: in the face of criticism, Mitsotakis promises reforms

Europe 1 with AFP 15:35 pm, September 17, 2023

Summoned to act in the face of criticism over his management considered risky of the fires and floods that hit Greece this summer, the Prime Minister pledged to increase the resources allocated to the fight against the effects of climate change. "In the space of two weeks, the country has experienced the biggest fire and floods in the history" of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during a speech Saturday night in Thessaloniki, northern Greece.

"The climate crisis requires the mobilization of the whole of society," he added Sunday at his traditional press conference on the sidelines of the Thessaloniki International Fair. Because "we are in a kind of war in peacetime" as floods devastated the fertile plain of Thessaly in the center of the country in early September.

The storms killed 17 people and engulfed cotton crops, fruit trees and killed hundreds of thousands of animals on vital agricultural land. They devastated a country hit just before by the largest fire ever recorded in the EU, in Turkey's north-east border, Evros.

Twenty-six people were killed while already in July, violent fires had ravaged the tourist islands of Rhodes and Corfu where thousands of evacuations had been ordered in confusion. Faced with these scourges, the conservative, comfortably re-elected in June, has promised to double to 600 million euros a special reserve for natural disasters next year.

Anger

It also promises a 10% rebate on housing tax to those who will insure their homes against natural disasters and plans to make this insurance compulsory. The leader did not hide a certain "confusion of responsibilities" between the state services responsible for intervening during these torrential rains. "In Thessaly and Evros I heard the anger of the citizens," assured the Prime Minister whose New Democracy (ND) party won an absolute majority in the general elections.

His government has faced harsh criticism from the opposition and residents affected by the floods. Many denounced the slowness of relief and unpreparedness in the face of these bad weather while Thessaly had already been affected in 2020 by torrential rains. Failures in cooperation between the army and the Civil Protection in the hours following the disaster were pointed out.

>> READ ALSO - Fire in Rhodes: Greece offers a week's holiday to affected tourists

But the leader brushed aside the arguments of his critics. Anyone who thinks that another country would have handled the storm and the gigantic amounts of water that fell better is "totally wrong", according to him. "All the experts have admitted it," he insisted, saying he "did not understand" the criticism of a lack of coordination.

Media footage of residents sheltering on the roofs of their homes desperate for help to arrive has tarnished the government's image, as have angry testimonies from locals who say they are left to their fate. Experts have also denounced the lack of fire prevention in Greece in the face of fires that are repeated every summer.

No reshuffle

In just three months of government, the Prime Minister has seen two of his ministers resign, one of whom, in charge of Citizen Protection, because he was on holiday on an island in the Aegean Sea in the middle of a fire. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, however, hammered Sunday "do not intend to carry out a reshuffle" of his team although the press is buzzing with rumors in this direction and that the Minister of Civil Protection and Climate Crisis, Vassilis Kikilias, is in the hot seat.

The Mitsotakis government bears "enormous responsibility" for the bad weather, denounced Effie Achtsioglou, former labour minister and presidential candidate of the left-wing Syriza party. She castigated the fact that "no serious work to prevent flooding has been done". According to a poll for the private television channel Mega, 61% of respondents have a negative image of the government.