By Penelope Galliou

Upheavals of all political planning, changes of plans for the government and parties but also confrontations between the government and the opposition are caused by the natural disaster that hits the Thessalycausing incalculable damage and a heavy toll in loss of human life.

The heavy climate that overshadowed the country from one end to the other led to the fatal cancellation of his presence and speech prime minister at the TIF over the weekend and instead today Kyriakos Mitsotakis is going to Larissa in order to be in the coordination center that was hastily created for the urgent needs caused by the catastrophic bad weather, while he will then visit the affected areas where he will perform an autopsy and be informed about immediate recovery needs and procedures.

At Larissa a coordination center has been set up where the co-competent ministers and deputy ministers of Infrastructure, Interior, Climate Crisis and Health, representatives of the armed forces and other involved services have gone to contribute to dealing with the crisis, while Nikos Dendias hastily returned from the United Arab Emirates in order to supervise the assistance of the Armed Forces in the whole operation.

The Minister of Climate Crisis, Vassilis Kikilias, during the press conference he gave during the development of the phenomena and disasters, proceeded to assure that the entire state apparatus has focused its forces on Thessaly. “I want to assure that there is no means, no action and no effort that could or can be made to extricate the people who are suffering for a second 24 hours in the area sooner and in a safe way, and it was not done,” said Mr. Kikilias.

For better coordination, the necessary actions and work were competently distributed in the center of Larissa in the following way:

1. Rescues from flooded houses (National Defense Staff led by the Commander of the 1st Army Lieutenant General I. Tsoplo, Fire Brigade, ELAS)
2. Electricity supply networks (DEDDIE Anast. Manos)
3. Water supply network (Deputy Minister of the Interior Thod. Livanios)
4. Transport networks (roads, trains, ports, airports) Minister of Infrastructure X. Staikouras, Deputy Minister N. Tachiaos)
5. Supply of excluded areas of Magnesia, Trikala, Karditsa, with food, water, shelter (Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection X. Triandopoulos with support for temporary accommodation, from the Ministry of Tourism)
6. Access and operation of health facilities (Deputy Minister of Health Marios Themistokleous)

The postponement of the internal party elections in SYRIZA Progressive Alliance for one week, that is on September 17 and 24 respectively, the Political Secretariat of the party unanimously decided, due to the biblical disaster in Thessaly. Earlier, the interim president of SYRIZA, Sokratis Famelos, also postponed his program, who did not meet with the productive bodies of Thessaloniki, in the framework of the TIF, while Koumoundourou is also planning delegations that will visit the affected areas “The state must also upgrade its adequacy and be ready to defend and support both citizens and the economy. The first step that needs to be taken immediately is to unify climate policy. It was a mistake to separate, that climate policy was separated and left the Ministry of the Environment, to an extent, and went to the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection. We need unified policies, because we have flood management and forest fires and land-use issues and protected areas issues. We need new Civil Protection plans. We also asked for it in the Parliament, because climate phenomena threaten. We need a strong State to fight and defend the next day in the face of great uncertainties” said Mr. Famelos, criticizing the government’s policy on Civil Protection.

Nikos Androulakis also mentioned the biblical disaster and floods in Thessaly, accusing the government of not having invested in prevention. “What does a state do? It is being prepared. It does prevention. It protects critical infrastructures, energy networks, transport networks, hospitals. Our country has not created a framework of strong prevention against natural phenomena, as a result of which we see, as the phenomenon of the climate crisis expands, Greece becomes more vulnerable”, stressed the president of PASOK.

KKE parliamentary representative Thanasis Pafilis contacted the Minister of Climate Crisis, requesting the mobilization of the entire state apparatus, with Perrisos stressing that “it cannot be accepted as ‘normality’ that the people are at the mercy of weather phenomena every now and then, as they want to convince us”.