A request to the Presidium of the Parliament to hold a pre-agenda discussion on the fires and the resilience of the Greek society and economy against natural disasters and the effects of the climate crisis was submitted by the president of K.O. SYRIZA, Socrates Famellos.

Mr. Famellos states that, “since July 24, SYRIZA – PS requested that a comprehensive debate be held in the Parliament at the level of political leaders on the fires and civil protection, a request that has since been repeated many times, but was not listened to by the government. For the same reason, a question was submitted to the Prime Minister on August 3, but there was no answer.

In this context, SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance as decided yesterday in the presidium of the parliamentary group submits today a complete and substantiated request to hold a debate in Parliament immediately prior to the agenda (article 143 of the Civil Code) with the aim of drawing up a national plan to prevent and deal with the forest fires and in general natural disasters linked to the climate crisis, i.e. for the adaptation and resilience of the Greek society and economy, but also for the immediate actions that must be taken for the relief of the affected, the restoration of burned areas, the environmental Protection”.

The full text of the request:

This summer, Greece is being tested by the fires with tragic loss of human lives, record burned areas, incalculable damage to the natural environment and enormous damage to property and economic activities. Basic and critical structures of the country were threatened by the fire, such as the 111th Combat Wing in Nea Aghialos and the University Hospital of Alexandroupoli, as well as many other military and industrial facilities. The country from one end to the other has been confronted with the inadequacy and unpreparedness of the state apparatus, people feel insecure and abandoned, while it has now become common to evacuate even parts of large cities.
The damage to the natural capital of the country is incalculable. Within 3 days (from August 19 to 21) over 400,000 acres burned in Greece, the unique and protected forest of Dadia was destroyed and the fires are still raging. In July, the forest fire in Dervenochoria destroyed one of the last green lungs in Attica (115,500 acres), the fire in Rhodes burned more than 10% of the island with a large part of the NATURA 2000 network, while these days it is in danger and Parnitha and the National Park. The munitions explosion at the 111th Fighter Wing in Nea Aghialos damaged the prestige of the country’s Armed Forces, demonstrated significant gaps in the protection of critical and sensitive infrastructures even in national defense, but also a lack of coordination. Similar messages were sent by the evacuation of the Alexandroupolis Hospital, which highlighted a major lack of security in the unspoiled Evros.
The government, as in the summer of 2021, is quick to attribute the inability to deal with the fires to the climate crisis, the heat and the gale force winds. However, the attempt to assign responsibility elsewhere (eg to local government) and not to its own unpreparedness stumbles in reality and downplays the criticality of the climate crisis. The government has an obligation to act effectively and in time to deal with the climate crisis and not to use it as the permanent alibi. Mr. Mitsotakis’ declaration of readiness for the fire fighting season at the beginning of July also proved to be incorrect and miscommunication.
The government has not used forest fire prevention and firefighting tools, frozen the Public Forest Fire Prevention Policy, enacted in 2019 as part of the National Forest Strategy, is delaying the implementation of the Goldammer Commission’s recommendations (February 2019) and left the Forest Service woefully understaffed.
The Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, which was established communicatively after the fires of the summer of 2021, “for the safety of our lives” does not yet have an organizational chart. Law 4662/2020 of the Mitsotakis government on Civil Protection issues remains inactive to this day. Civil Protection projects included in the Recovery Fund show practically zero absorption. In total, 938 thousand € have been absorbed from the 187.5 million € of integrated projects (0.5%). Critical infrastructure and equipment are delayed.
Recruitment to the Fire Service in implementation of PD 79/2022, where there are 3,600 vacancies, has not yet been launched, while the government announced only 500 recruitments after the devastating fires. And while there is the availability of 2,500 contract and seasonal forest firefighters who are laid off every October.
And all this while the warnings of the scientific community about the climate crisis are known and since 2016 our country has had an institutionalized National Adaptation Strategy, which was drawn up with the contribution of the Academy of Athens and the Bank of Greece. But the government did not make use of the scientific knowledge. On the contrary, it weakened the adequacy of the state.
The acuteness and extent of the phenomena of the climate crisis require scientific planning and radical reforms in all social and economic functions. The resilience of the country, society and economy, against the climate crisis and natural disasters concerns the sustainability of society, the economy and ecosystems and there is no room for further delays in taking measures.
For this reason, from July 24, SYRIZA-P.S. he called for a comprehensive debate in Parliament at the level of political leaders on the major issue of resilience and repeated his request several times, but was not heeded by the government. For the same reason, we submitted a question to the Prime Minister on August 3, but we did not receive an answer.
Based on the above data and given the seriousness and urgency of the situation that has developed, we request that a debate be held immediately before the order of the day in the Parliament (article 143 of the Civil Code) with the aim of drawing up a national plan to prevent and deal with forest fires and in of natural disasters linked to the climate crisis, i.e. for the adaptation and resilience of the Greek society and economy, but also for the immediate actions that must be taken to relieve those affected, to restore burned areas, to protect the environment.