“The fires are the government’s responsibility,” stressed the president of Hellenic Solution Kyriakos Velopoulosduring his introduction to the debate on “the recent fires that occurred in the country, the measures to support those affected and the initiatives launched by the government to deal with the consequences of the climate crisis” in the Plenary.

Mr. Velopoulos criticized the prime minister for “playing with our intelligence” with what he said about dealing with fires and supporting fire victims. In fact, he also read a protest message he received from a livestock farmer in Evros, whose property was destroyed by the fire in Dadia. The president of the Hellenic Solution said that “the prime minister played enough with Greece. He won’t play with our intelligence either.” Mr. Velopoulos agreed, in part, with the Prime Minister’s statement that “the fires have no party color” but added that “the fires have government and party responsibility” and asked Mr. Mitsotakis “to stop moving the ball of the responsibilities to others”. He wondered why the prime minister chose today “to show the national delegation photos from Evros and not go there yourself to see the situation, as we did”.

Mr. Velopoulos characterized the speech of Mr. Mitsotakis as “meteorological” and “shifting and shifting of responsibilities, as he has been doing continuously for four years”. He observed that the prime minister, “at least before he even asked for an apology, while now she doesn’t ask either” on the contrary, he added, “today she did the worst. He barricaded himself behind the burned bodies of the firemen to tell us not to talk because these people are running and fighting. However, this is called fighting someone else’s fight…”.

He characterized the comparison made by the Prime Minister with the fires in Hawaii and Spain as unfortunate, saying that “these comparisons show that he either does not know, or that he came to make fun of the Greek Parliament”.

The president of the Hellenic Solution asked the government why “assistance was not requested from the “Bereifs” of Russia, why you did not request the “Ilyusin” as we did in previous years”. Noting that Mrs. Zakharova stated that “Greece never asked us for help, as in the past we ran.” He also criticized the government for being slow to procure retarding material.

Mr. Velopoulos said that “the prime minister is leaving behind scorched earth”. Maybe, he said, “the people were saved” but, as he added, “the nature that existed in Diadia no longer exists and we are interested in nature in its entirety, not only the people but also the environment in which they live”. He pointed out that the 6 million euros may have been given to Diadia, “but did the prime minister see where it went?” noting that “most mayors and districts are blue”. He asked for an account of the cost of renting the helicopters from newly established private companies based in Azerbaijan and the efficiency. He denounced that “there are rodents of public money” of direct assignments for forest firefighting, mentioning that the president of foresters has also denounced them and asked “to put the knife into the bone, to break the pus”. He described the supply of Air Tractor as “fraud and theft of Greek money, as they do nothing for Greece”.

The president of the Hellenic Solution said: “I wish and ask God for rain to stop the fire, because they (the government) will leave a scorched earth. This is your ability.” He claimed that the battle in Evros was fought by only four helicopters and that the warnings given by the mayor of Dadia last year regarding the crossings of immigrants were ignored. He agreed with the anti-flood works that should be done quickly and asked for help to the beekeepers.

Mr. Velopoulos also criticized the pan-Hellenic television media, saying that “in order not to spoil the image of the prime minister, they did not show the fires in Evros and Rhodes”. And he added that “political responsibility does not exist without resignation”.

The president of the Hellenic Solution agreed that the presence of so many fires in 24 hours is the work of arsonists, pointing out among other things that “I, however, was impressed by the targeting of fishermen in Evros”. Which, he said, “is very strange” and he wondered: “Why do you want to drive them out of the area? To become the LNG pipeline hub or not? Will there be a large military base there?’ and emphasized: “The fishermen will not leave the Evros, because they are guarding Thermopylae. Understand it!’

Also, the president of the Hellenic Solution wondered if it is a coincidence that fires occur where there is interest in setting up wind turbines.

Mr. Velopoulos also referred to the meeting that the Prime Minister will have in the afternoon with his Italian counterpart, as well as to the proposed law he submitted on identity cards, saying that “the Greek solution will not allow direct assignment. He will appeal to the European Court of Justice if necessary.”

Concluding his speech, the president of Hellenic Solution said that “when we speak, we know why we speak and we are not afraid” and pledged that “we will continue to serve the interests of the citizens and not the oligarchs, as most do here”.