“Today the funds of the program were credited and next week the payments of the First State Aid” to the affected by the fires in Atticasaid the Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Triandopoulos during the discussion of a topical question by the KKE member of parliament, Yiannis Giokas, regarding “taking measures to deal with the consequences of the recent catastrophic fire in Attica”.

The deputy minister pointed out that “all the agencies involved have moved intensively from the first moment to activate the measures of the State Aid framework to support the affected and to restore the damages” from the recent damages in Attica.

Mr. Triandopoulos stated that the recording of the levels of the Disaster Recovery Directorate of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection began immediately after the fires were extinguished. The first phase of the autopsies has been completed and is now continuing with the requests made by the municipalities.

During the first phase of the autopsies, the deputy minister said, 466 autopsies were carried out in buildings of the nine municipalities of Attica, of which 369 autopsies concern residences. Of these, 72 houses have been marked (red) as unfit for use and to be demolished. 121 as temporarily unsuitable for use (yellow) and which must carry out construction interventions and 176 houses as suitable (green) for their habitation, but for which there is provision for assistance in the context of the Housing Subsidy. Therefore, said Mr. Triandopoulos, “the houses unsuitable for use add up to 193”.

The deputy minister added that at the same time, the autopsies by the State Aid Committee of the Attica Region on affected businesses are continuing and the ELGA Committees are recording the farmers’ statements about the damages they suffered.

Fire

Mr. Triandopoulos stated that for the granting of the First Aid for housing assistance through the relevant platform for citizens which amounts to up to 10,000 euros and for the granting of the first Aid against the subsidy to businesses and to agricultural holdings which reaches 4,000 euros, up to today 275 finalized Applications and 29 provisional Applications have been submitted.

The Deputy Minister noted that “from the first days all the Ministerial Decisions were issued, the State Aid platform was opened and in the following days the first payments will be made and the implementation of all the measures of the State Aid framework continues”.

Mr. Triandopoulos noted that this framework of State Aid support measures “was created by the ND Government, it did not exist before, it evolves and adapts to the new conditions and comes as close as possible to its nuclear philosophy which is to give as much as possible it becomes the help of the State to the citizens who need it”. However, he defended himself that the support of the State through the mechanisms of State Aid “cannot be done without terms and conditions. In order to ensure that the resources and support given will be directed to those who deserve it and really need it and need to stand on their own two feet.”

KKE Member of Parliament Yiannis Giokas, for his part, argued that the ten measures announced by the government for the affected “go right on the well-trodden path. On the road that brought us here.” The compensations given, he said, “are far below the real needs, not 100% of the damage, while in many cases these compensations are accompanied by bank loans.” This, he added, “is about the commercialization of forests, with all these legislations the government has done”, while “the ridiculousness of “individual responsibility” continues.

The KKE MP said that according to official complaints “20 days after the fire, the dangerous trees and branches hanging over houses and roads have not been removed”. He argued that “the control and autopsies that have been done in houses do not reflect the real situation. Homes with extensive damage come out “green”. He complained that ELGA services “in many cases have not gone to damaged agricultural crops”. He said that the damage to public infrastructure is extensive and the 5.2 million euros that have been announced to be given to the municipalities do not reach the minimum to cover the costs.

Mr. Giokas said that from “Clearing my plot” we now have “Greening my yard” when the restoration of natural wealth must be done with an integrated forest management plan where prevention will be at the center, with scientific criteria, under the responsibility of the forestry services that lack 10,000 forest workers and 1,500 foresters. The KKE MP asked for an increase in all funds for fire victims and forest protection and suggested that these additional resources could also be found from the Recovery Fund. He said as KKE “we are not talking about the inability of the state to protect its citizens but about political choices and for this there is accumulated anger among the citizens”.