“We managed to protect thousands of people, but we lost forests and property and we are here today to talk about everything”. With this phrase, the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, started the press conference at the General Secretariat of Information and Communication about the catastrophic fires.
The Prime Minister spoke about the climate crisis, and called for the term to be used instead of “climate change”, noting, among other things, that the government had and still aims to protect the environment.
“We brought the first climate law in the country”, he said characteristically. He then stressed that the phenomenon of fires is not Greek, but Mediterranean and global.
“Look at what is happening in Italy and other countries”, he said, stressing that the MED 9 Summit with the Mediterranean countries will look at ways for countries to work together to tackle fires in our region more effectively.
As he characteristically said, the contribution of the opposition is welcome and necessary to help find solutions.
We did everything possible but in some cases it was not enough
Answering a relevant question, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that he apologized to the Greek citizens and he did it because he felt it as a personal need because “you must when something shocks you to see what went wrong”.
He went on to say that the accountability will definitely be assigned but not in the time of battle. Both individual and collective and do not necessarily concern only individuals but also structures and procedures but a clear mind is necessary.
“Mistakes are not made by someone who does absolutely nothing”, he said, adding that “we did what was humanly possible but in some cases that was not enough”.
The rhetoric of some about the evacuations is vulgar
When asked about the criticism of the evacuation of settlements, the Prime Minister said that it is difficult to understand who is criticizing a policy aimed at protecting human life.
“I find the rhetoric that was developed by some social media vulgar”, he said. “It is a collective conquest that we now have a culture of evacuation. I will leave this chair at some point, 112 will stay”, he said.
He said countless businesses and countless homes were saved. “We are used to see what was burned and not what was saved”, he said.
The air means were more than ever
The Prime Minister spoke about the strengthening of the country by air assets, saying that not only are they more than ever, but aid was added from other countries too.
“As Mr. Hardalias explained, not everything flies at the same time”, the Prime Minister said.
He said that the purchase of firefighting aircraft will move forward, something that is necessary but not the ultimate solution for dealing with fires.
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It is very important to see what went wrong
The Prime Minister stated that prevention is the message. Giving two examples, the Prime Minister said that at the initiative of the Civil Protection, 19 settlements were cleaned, with characteristics similar to those of Mati.
The Hippocratios Politeia was one of them and was largely saved precisely because for these interventions. These interventions are not always enough.
He then said that the Royal Estates at Tatoi was a priority to intervene so that there is no damage. “We did not succeed”, he said and noted that “I am sorry for that”. Lumberjacks at the Royal Estates were cleaning up two months before the fire, he said.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke about the cases of settlements that are in or are very close to forests. “It is clear that a zone must be created which will be delimited by the experts in which we will not plant pines, we will plant slow-burning trees. And one more thing, if we have to cut down a tree to save a lot more, we have to be able to do it more easily”.
We did not hesitate to ask for help from the European Civil Protection Mechanism
According to the Prime Minister, within a few hours Greece had requested international assistance and many countries responded. “I want to thank each country individually”, he said, adding that there had never been so much help in a country for fires in the past.
“We probably exceeded expectations and obviously many phones were picked up by me personally to have this help”, said Mr. Mitsotakis. “We had heatwave for many days. 45 to 47 degrees that turned the country into a powder keg. Most of the fires did not escape, some unfortunately escaped”, he said, adding that next year we will be better.
The discussion about the changes of use in the burned areas is non-existent
Answering a relevant question, the Prime Minister said that an Act of Legislative Content will be issued today in order to accelerate, something that is guaranteed by the Constitution, that the burned areas will be reforested.
The Prime Minister then spoke about the transition to an economy of zero emissions.
“Forests do not have to burn to build wind turbines”, he said.
