Constitution: Rally protesting the fires raging in the country

Makis Synodinos

Organizations are currently gathering at the Syntagma on the occasion of the fires that are burning several parts of the country again this summer.

In a statement, the Initiative against environmental destruction and climate change states, among other things: “Pendeli, Rethymno, Megara, Soufli, Ilia, Messinia, Lesvos, and we are only in the middle of the official “fire fighting season”… The government of the New Democracy is responsible for this disaster! A government of incendiaries, not only of the war that threatens to spread from Ukraine to the SE Mediterranean, but also of forests and the environment with its criminal policy that turned North Evia and Varybom into ashes last year and continues.

– In the Forest Service (which since 1988 has been stripped of its forest protection responsibilities passing to the responsibility of the Fire Department), in the last 20 years the staff has been reduced by 50% and the necessary resources by 80%. Today there are 3,600 organizational vacancies and staff exhausted without days off and leaves.
– In the Fire Department, 5,000 workers are still seasonal claiming their permanence and additional staff recruitment. Last year in November they had to face the MAT in the demonstrations outside the Ministry. The average age of the employees is 47 years. The equipment they have is inadequate and old, only 10-15% are up to 10 years old. Most of the budget appropriations for the Fire Service, instead of meeting these needs, ends up in the leases for expensive aerial fire fighting equipment for rent from large private companies.
– The Dadia – Lefkimmi – Soufli Forest National Park in Evros was one of the seven Natura Area Management Agencies abolished in December 2021 (another 16 joined this spring). Seven months later it is burning, amid complaints that leaks from a dam in the area that would have played a role in more effective firefighting had not been repaired.
– In Penteli, the cleaning work had not been completed due to a delay in the disbursement of the necessary funds, with the result that there was a ready kindling made of dry grasses and branches. More police officers (626) than firefighters (486) attempted the fire!
– Within the week, the new anti-environmental bill of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be voted on, which will complete the work of the Hatzidakis law of 2020. Removal of any barrier to the declassification of “Natura” areas in which the development of road networks, installation and transmission of electricity, mining activities, tourist facilities, RES-type industrial projects, etc.

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