September 21, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

Land clearing fairy tale: government brazenly blames citizens for destroying Attica


The Mitsotakis government has made an unprecedented accusation against citizens whose homes were burned down in the fiery devastation of Attica on August 12, claiming that this happened because they did not clean up their land plots.

In fact, the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis directly accused the citizens: “Eight out of 10 affected homes did not file a cleanup request, and two out of 10 that did had minor damage.”

In other words, the fire that started in Varnabas and traveled more than 40 kilometers to reach Athens in Pampa Chalandriou, happened because citizens had not put their plots in order in the intervening time! In all the previous years, when the narrative of fire protection and the obligatory acceptance of responsibility by citizens had not yet been invented, the government, as the official version of its inability to extinguish the fires, presented that ““The chimney, fire and stain phenomenon is to blame.”

So how are citizens now to blame for not reporting that they cleared their areas? «Where we had declarations of cleared areas, in many cases the fire stopped at the boundaries of the areas, while where we did not have declarations of cleared areas, it continued,” He referred to the discussion led by the Prime Minister in Penteli on the causes of the fire that destroyed all that remained of “green” Attica.

That is, According to the government, fire has special “knowledge” to know who has cleared their land and who has not. It would be funny if it weren't so tragic and didn't cost the life of an innocent woman, as well as the property and belongings of hundreds of townspeople.

Also, someone should explain to the government that if someone cleans up their plot and there is a municipality around it “flies like a kite” and does not remove anything, or the state itself does not create fire breaks in the forests, for example, then it won't save his house unless he risks his own life to do it, as thousands of owners did. As for the notorious law on fire protection, the Mitsotakis government should be remindedwhich the ombudsman himself recognized as unconstitutional.

In early June, an independent administrative body “Civil Advocate” issued a statement regarding the non-functioning law on fire protection of real estate, according to which thousands of owners will be forced to spend thousands of euros they do not have in order to avoid being punished with exorbitant fines by the Mitsotakis government.

In particular, as the Ombudsman states in the text with comments sent to the Minister of Public Works Theo Skilakakis regarding the fire protection of real estate in in or near forest areas, citizens are asked to pay “excessive financial expenses that affect the right of ownership”!

The Ombudsman, criticizing the relevant resolution KYAindicates that citizens will have to pay many thousands of euros, since the Regulation on fire protection provides for such measures as:

  • construction of a 1-meter high fence made of non-combustible materials,
  • installation of fire-resistant external frames,
  • installation of metal fire-resistant screens,
  • replacement of gutters, filling cracks with non-combustible materials
  • roof replacement, installation of water sprinkler system, etc.

The number of citizens who will be forced to comply with these measures is extremely high, the ombudsman notes in his letter to the ministries of the interior and PEN.“since the said EIA establishes horizontal provisions – only with a partial parameter of partial differentiation of mandatory works according to the scale of real estate risk – which concern real estate within and outside the development plan, permanent residential or holiday properties, as well as properties of any date of construction, including those to be built.”

It is noted that, according to engineers' estimates, the cost that many thousands of citizens will have to pay for the “transformation” his real estatereaches 28,000 euros!

Now the law is being presented as an advertised “in the interests of property owners”while no one explains how much they will have to pay to take advantage of this protection… As for the opposition parties, they still haven’t said a word!

The Ombudsman's report can and should be used in the Council of Europe, where millions of property owners will have to turn to save their homes and escape the suffering that the Mitsotakis government wants to impose on them. So if the government wants the fire safety law to be strictly enforced, it must also pay for what it orders property owners to do.

Because it's obvious that they are trying to exploit a disaster for which they themselves are responsible.to impose an unjust law in its entirety (note that they “froze” measures to restore the houses after the ombudsman's conclusion).

There is nothing in the Constitution that says that Greek citizens must be Rockefeller-level rich to pay for everything that goes into the pot of any government.



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