Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the recent bad weather in his first conversations in today’s meeting with the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
“Especially for our fellow citizens in Attica who have been tested by this unprecedented snowfall of ‘Hope’, what I want to emphasize is that the effort to build a resilient and efficient state is ongoing and is a non-negotiable priority for this government. There will be setbacks, there will be failures that we always have to bravely acknowledge, mainly so that we can learn from our mistakes and become better and better. But I must tell you that overall the work that has been done in the field of Civil Protection in these 30 months I consider to be very important and we have laid the foundations to be able to acquire procedures, equipment, training so that we are ready to deal with any unexpected no matter how intense it is. And on this path we will continue to work even harder so that we can finally be successful in the goals we have set”, said the Prime Minister.
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Speaking on the same subject, the President of the Republic said:
“The fires of summer and the recent bad weather teach us that the country should as soon as possible acquire and consolidate a modern and effective model of crisis management. Crises that science now accepts are linked to climate change and are unfortunately expected to show an upward trend in the future. This model should be able, even in extreme conditions, with the proper coordination and cooperation of all stakeholders and the right logistical infrastructure to ensure and offer citizens safety and protection both in terms of prevention and reduction of the adverse effects expected and practically in the context of dealing when these situations when they arise. There are many things that need to be done I realize, but they are absolutely necessary. These days our fellow citizens have lived in very difficult conditions, as you said especially in Attica, they have gone through difficult times, I hope that these phenomena have slowly been dealt with in their entirety. Of course, the timely information and cooperation of the citizens with the state and local bodies for this difficult task is equally important, there is a lot to be done. I think that once again we owe to congratulate the executives of the Armed Forces, EKAB, and the Local Government and all who were able to respond to the extent that they responded and offered help to our fellow citizens who were in such bad conditions. I would like to stress the importance of the volunteers and organizations’ contribution, for example to the homeless that you and I have had the opportunity to see repeatedly lately”.