Kyriakos Mitsotakis: “The scythe of justice is merciless on arsonists”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, as part of their regular monthly meeting. The prime minister said that “the scythe of justice will be merciless against those who believe they can get away with endangering human lives and destroying precious natural resources.”

Furthermore, the prime minister emphasized that “fires are usually started by human hands” clarifying that “if it is negligence, it is unforgivable” and calling on citizens to observe the rules of elementary logic.

“The government has an obligation to readjust its planning for forest fires”

At the beginning of the dialogue they had in front of the cameras, the prime minister spoke of “difficult and very sad days as we mourn 4 of our fellow citizens, the 2 pilots of the Air Force who fell in the line of duty and two citizens who did not manage to move away from the fiery front. There is no doubt that the climate crisis is here and it is affecting us in ways more intense than scientists had warned us,” added Mr. Mitsotakis.

However, he hastened to emphasize that “the climate crisis may be a reality but it is not an alibi. The country must do more than it had planned in order to be ready to mitigate as much as possible the consequences of a reality that we all feel and can have dramatic effects in different sectors of economic and social life.

“The government has an obligation to adjust its planning for forest fires although important steps have been taken. No one can accuse the state of being absent. There were firefighters and aerial vehicles. But we must become better and learn from the best and constantly improve and not be satisfied with the progress we have achieved” added the prime minister.

“We have enough resources for this effort”

As he pointed out “this is the obligation we have been given by the Greek people” while noting that “we have enough resources for this effort. I am not only referring to the strengthening of aerial means, but we must put more emphasis on what we do in winter with our forests. We need to do more to protect the forests not in the summer but even in the seasons that are not at risk from big fires.”

Finally, in memory of “those who lost their lives carrying out an extremely difficult and dangerous mission”, Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked “those who fight on the front lines of the fires, the fire department, the police, the coast guard, who helped so much to carry out very large evacuations in an organized manner without endangering human life”

The Prime Minister’s “thank you” to the volunteers was special, for whom he said that “especially in Rhodes, they showed great self-sacrifice”. “It is the state’s obligation to mobilize these voluntary forces so that we all do our best together against a natural phenomenon that will accompany us for many years” concluded the prime minister.