Every year, at the beginning of the fire-prone season in Greece, the following legitimate questions arise: Have fields and forests been cleared and, if so, to what extent and by whom? What is the number of firefighting personnel? How many firefighters have been recruited? How many seasonal staff have been made permanent? And finally, what is the number of available and operational technical resources available for firefighting and how much have these available resources increased since last year?

The lack of preparation from Mitsotakis’ government, unfortunately, has already been made apparent. with much of Attica being burned again, while the complaints of citizens are again abundant over the non-existence of the State.

Obviously at this moment the priority is to extinguish the fires and our thoughts are with the residents of the area and all those who are fighting this battle. But we can’t help but think about the fact that there has been a long-standing deforestation and an absence of adequate protection against such fires.

Climate change is a given, but the criminal policy of the current and the long-standing monumental governments, which have, among other things, greatly downgraded civil protection, leads to this explosive combination that we are unfortunately seeing again this year.

As MERA25 we had warned about this. The government reassured us. The fires are proving them wrong again.

We call on the government now, to immediately make all the necessary permanent recruitments and permanent appointments needed, as well as the supply of modern equipment, means and infrastructure.

At the same time, we demand that all the burnt areas be declared as reforestation areas and that any activity on all the burnt areas be prohibited.

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