K. Mitsotakis: “The climate crisis is to blame for everything”

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was aggressive towards scientists, directly questioning their estimates of the extent of the disaster, during his speech in Parliament on the deadly fires and added that climate change and the phenomenon of “self-ignition at night” are to blame!

Despite the conclusions of scientists and the many voices of critics who accuse him of poor preparation for the fire season, Kyriakos Mitsotakis stuck to his usual strategy: “We did everything well, but the climate crisis is to blame.” The Prime Minister, referring to the situation in Evros, where the fire has been blazing for the 13th day, spoke about the “phenomenon of the night fire” and directly pointed to illegal immigrants as arsonists in the border areas.

Of course, this raises the question: if he admits that it was illegal migrants who caused the fire in the Dadia forest by arson, then why does his government act against the citizens who arrested the arsonists during the arsons?

It is noteworthy that in his speech he did not mention the victims of the fire on Evros and other parts of the country, informing the national delegation about the recent fires, measures to support the affected people, the plan to restore the ecological disaster on Evros and the initiatives put forward by the government to combat consequences of the climate crisis.

This will be followed by opening statements by opposition leaders, followed by a round of second statements to conclude the session with a closing statement from the prime minister. This procedure is carried out at the request of the Prime Minister in accordance with Rule 142A of the Rules of Procedure of Parliament. The first to speak was the Speaker of the Parliament, Konstantinos Tasoulas.

Before the start of the debate, Nikos Androulakis asked for a minute of silence for those who died in the fires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9FJj3BQzFg

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said:

“Citizens expect accountability, responsibility and maturity in relation to the phenomenon that our country and the entire planet is suffering from. Fires have no color. Our views must be tested on the scale of what is cost-effective and feasible.

I would like to express my sympathy to all those who have been and are being tested by fire, and assure them that the state will complete the payment of compensation as soon as possible. We are all hurt by what happened.

We must also agree with the general premise that follows from world experience. We must realize that climate threats are often one step ahead of human protection. This does not mean that our own mobilization should not be adapted to new realities. We will do it today, and every year we must do more.

In America, Hawaii burned, hundreds of people died, there was no evacuation. Tenerife and Canada. This is the reality of the new climate crisis that has already arrived. And in our country, although we have prepared better than in any other year, we are faced with a new reality.

We’ve had one of the most intense heatwaves this summer, accompanied by strong winds. In Evros the winds were unusually strong and prolonged. We’ve had over 500 fires. There were cases when the fire brigade coped with more than 220 fires. We learned that these fires are not controlled.

In July and August, we had extreme levels, level 5, seven times. This year we were better prepared than last year, but we had more burnt areas. The fire in Parnit was almost immediately noticed by the police near the monastery of Zoodokhos Pigi. The helicopter arrived 5-6 minutes after its discovery. He delivered 8 tons of water, but this was not enough. As the fire raced up the slope, it moved from one side of the ravine to the other in a matter of minutes. That was the situation our firefighters dealt with.

I say this because we often hear the analysis of fire breaks and so on. Look, there are limits. There are fires that fire breaks cannot cope with. We saw the same thing during the fire on Evros. We had night fires. A phenomenon that was traced back to the fires in California, where 18 people died. The phenomenon that occurred on Evros will be studied for many more years. In a few hours, a huge area was burned. In five hours, he burned the same area that in 2021 was burned in 5 days.

Conditions are being formed that make the battle increasingly unequal. But we must not consider this battle lost. We used to wonder where the state is and when the planes should fly. Today the state is everywhere, but the fire does not subside. Planes are everywhere, but in many cases the water they drop evaporates.

We must not deny the great steps taken by Greece, above all the organization of the Civil Defense, nor the struggle of our people, firefighters, pilots, policemen who save property and lives, and deserve gratitude and honor, not light criticism.”

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