SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance submitted a complete conclusion with proposals for the day after the devastating fires in Rhodesafter the two-day tour of the SYRIZA-PS echelon in the region, which was attended by the president of the Parliamentary Group (KO), Sokratis Famellos, the Secretary of the KO, Dionysis Kalamatianos, former MPs and the Prefectural Committee of the party as well as from its meetings with the self-governing, productive and social bodies of the island.

According to a statement by SYRIZA-PS, the members of the echelon “expressed respect and congratulated all those who took action against the devastating fires that hit the island for many days with self-sacrifice and many times voluntarily and with insufficient equipment”.

As noted, “the purpose of SYRIZA-PS is to evaluate the management of a natural disaster in order to draw the necessary conclusions which will lead to the State adequately protecting citizens and their properties against natural disasters”.

“The first priority is to make up for the deficit in local product and income caused by the fire on the island of Rhodes. At the same time, it is necessary to record the damages and to formulate the rehabilitation subsidies for citizens, farmers and businesses. It is still necessary to subsidize activities/enterprises in all sectors (primary, secondary, tertiary) for the (differential) cost/loss of the downtime due to the fires. The compensation must also include the loss of agricultural and agricultural capital, while in all measures there must be a clause guaranteeing employment”, says the announcement in question.

Regarding fire prevention and management, two serious institutional problems were identified: “The unplanned and unstaffed transfer of the Forestry Services to the Ministry of Environment and Energy, which was done purely for communication reasons after the disastrous fires of 2021 by Mr. Mitsotakis and the way it was implemented, created additional problems for the services” and “the establishment of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in 2021 also without an organizational chart and without staffing the corresponding structures in Regions and Municipalities”.

“Also found: Delay in 2019-2021 of prevention projects, suspension in 2019 of the forest protection program, freezing of the hiring of foresters and non-completion of the fire protection plans in Rhodes to date due to the weakening of the forest service. In the field of firefighting, a lack of personnel, lack and age of equipment, weaknesses in coordination, lag in support and utilization of volunteers were identified. The evacuation strategy and the tactic of extinguishing the fires at sea had a very negative impact on the natural capital of the island. The main conclusion is that the climate crisis creates new requirements, the response of which requires timely and correct planning and implementation with appropriate personnel and equipment”, SYRIZA continues and underlines:

“There is an immediate need for the State to invest in personnel and projects in the fields of firefighting, forest service, civil protection, protected area management agencies. The lack of staffing of civil protection in the Region and Municipality is huge. The fires affected two of the basic conditions for the survival of Rhodes, the safety of citizens and visitors and the environment. These terms, safety and environment, are at the same time terms and conditions for the quality of life, but also a resource for development and tourism. Therefore, strong investments by the state in the field of security and the environment are required.”

Regarding the environment, SYRIZA adds, “it is necessary to immediately declare reforestation in the burned forest lands and to quickly complete the studies on the anti-corrosion, anti-flood protection in the forest lands, by the forestry service and to finance and execute the projects. The strengthening of security and the restoration of the environment must be done under public management and not with the concession of the forests to private individuals by Mr. Skylakakis.

End the conclusion raises two more serious issues, according to the same announcement: “The extensive delinquency and arbitrariness in public spaces and in the coastal zone with encroachment of public spaces, arbitrarily that are not demolished, lack of business licenses, violation of archeological law, absence of leases, etc. Justice and auditing authorities must do their duty quickly” and that “the basic tool of the next day must become spatial planning which delays and leads to the waste of natural resources without a plan. Urban spatial planning must now also include the needs of civil protection, climate adaptation, climate neutrality, the digital economy and environmental protection. The next day of Rhodes must start with green initiatives such as recycling, sorting at the source and the separate collection of organics, energy saving and also energy communities with RES”.