“There is nothing more important and sacred than the protection of citizens,” he pointed out, among other things the new Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias during the ceremony of handing over and receiving by the serving minister and current deputy minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Evangelos Tournas, which took place today at the Ministry.

“I honor and respect your self-sacrifice, duty and effort, and ladies and gentlemen, I have the requirement for professionalism and work because in this Ministry in which I am – and I am very very happy, for the special honor the Prime Minister gave me – , concerns what its name says, Civil Protection. And I feel that there is nothing more important and sacred than the protection of citizens, of course the forests then, of course the properties and so on, but above all and above all human life,” said Mr. Kikilias after thanking the outgoing official minister and current deputy minister, Evangelos Tournas, the new deputy minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Christos Triandopoulos as well as the former minister Christos Stylianidis.

“The only thing I have to promise is a lot of hard work and few words and I think that concerns and has to do with all of us,” noted Mr. Kikilias.

“I am very happy, Mr. Minister, to receive from you to have you as a close partner again” he said addressing Mr. Tournas and added: “You have served in many positions of responsibility and the Armed Forces and we thank you – and I personally – for your contribution to this effort, as well as the good colleague and hard-working minister, Christos Triandopoulos, whose work I have been following lately based on the very big challenges that the planet, Europe and the country are now presenting: we are no longer talking about climate change but for climate crisis. And I cannot fail to say a big thank you to my good friend, former commissioner, former minister, good colleague, a noble man, Christos Stylianidis, for his contribution, his experience, his knowledge and the very great effort in times which they are difficult and in challenges that are big. I speak for all of us, thanking you for your offer and your contribution to the national effort”, he underlined and addressing the head of the Fire Department, he expressed his great joy, respect but also emotion that he finds again “the excellent level firefighters and Fire Department officials Body”.

“I had the honor and the pleasure to serve with them in the Ministry of Citizen Protection in very difficult times and times, in times of economic poverty, when basic things were missing, personal protection equipment was missing, tires were missing from our fire brigades, aerial means were in single digits in number,” he noted.

As he mentioned, dealing with crises is not new for him. “You all know very well what we faced in 2014 and obviously even better what we all faced together, especially me as Minister of Health, the two years of the great crisis, the global public health crisis, where the predictions of how it would end – based on this which seemed to be happening in neighboring countries – were very very difficult. And yet we rose to the occasion and protected, I repeat, human life. I consider it pivotal and very important. I must also say a thank you to the former minister, with whom I worked at the time, Nikos Hardalia, who in turn, his colleagues, his people made a very, very big effort in the establishment of this ministry and a very, very big effort in unprecedented times of a health crisis”, underlined Mr. Kikilias and added that this Ministry concerns both Civil Protection and the climate crisis.

“We are invited to see overall policies that come to deal with the above”, concluded Mr. Kikilias.