The possibility of a repeat of last year’s widespread catastrophic fires is perhaps Maximos’s biggest nightmare.
By Antonis Anzoletos
The inadequacy of the state apparatus, the bureaucracy, the responsibilities that are not clear have always been the alibi of governments after great natural disasters. Over time, in fires, floods, but also heavy snowfall, those who have the general command have shown their nakedness, trying afterwards to collect the uncollected.
The eyes of the respective majority, especially after the great tragedies and the deadly fires in Ilia and Mati, turn to the fire period. Almost everyone today is talking about the possibility of setting up early polls. Even those who appear confident that the Kyriakos Mitsotakis will appeal to the popular verdict in the fall admit that such a thing can not happen if in the country, the unborn, recorded fires that will be reminiscent of last summer. The beginning, of course, was not the best possible. The fires in Ano Glyfada and to Euboea have troubled and further mobilized the state mechanism. THE Minister of Civil Protection Christos Stylianidis in his recent statements he predicted a difficult summer citing the forecasts of meteorologists. The possibility of a repeat of last year’s extensive catastrophic fires is perhaps Maximos’s biggest nightmare.
A few years ago natural disasters were estimated accelerated the fall of SYRIZA. It was not just over-taxation of the middle classthe signing a memorandum from a party of the left and the Prespa agreement. The climate for his government Alexis Tsipras was greatly burdened by the 24 dead in Pen floods, but also since July 23, when 102 people lost their lives so unjustly in Eye. The most deadly fire in the history of modern Greece, according to many, was the “tombstone” in the already declining course of SYRIZA. Memories are still fresh from the tragedy in Eastern Attica and the people of the area have not recovered from what they experienced. They expect the state to implement the reconstruction of the small town with the required safety rules.
In 2007 ο Costas Karamanlis despite the deadly fires in Ilia managed to win the election. These of course had been announced since 17 August and seven days later the blaze cost him his life 67 people with huge areas both in Peloponnese as well as in Euboea to surrender to the flames. Many pre-election activities had stopped from then until August 25 until the beginning of September. The political cost was quite high. Costas Karamanlis won with a percentage of 41.84%, occupying, however, 152 seats, 13 less than in 2004 when it had reached 45.36%.
Two years later, in 2019, the very large fires in Attica were very much in the news. They started on the night of August 21, from his area Grammarand burned a total of 210,000 acres, mainly pine forest. The fire spread throughout the northeastern Atticafrom the area of ​​Grammatikos and Marathon, to Pikermi and Palliniburning in the intermediate, part of Penteli in the area of ​​Dionysos. Once again, the fires carried out their destructive work shortly before political developments began. The announcement of early elections was announced suddenly by Costas Karamanlis on September 2, 2009. One of the main reasons was the difficult situation of the Greek economy, due to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the second is the refusal of PASOK to cooperate on the issue of the election of the President of the Republic. Of course in all this climate the memories from the fires in Attica were very fresh with ND losing about 9 points difference.
