“Thessaly is experiencing a very great biblical disaster, just like many other regions of our country. The first concern is our support for people who are either attempting or trying to protect their assets. At the Civil Protection Coordinator of Thessaly, we were informed by the ministers and the regional governor about the efforts to restore the infrastructure. The priorities we set, after of course the rescue of citizens and the support of those who are trying, were the issues of transport connections, first of all the prefectural road connections, electricity, water supply and health infrastructure”, underlined the president of the SYRIZA KO- PS, Sokratis Famellos in his statements during his tour of the areas affected by the deadly floods in Thessaly.

“Of course, the protection of life comes first. We were informed by the mayor of Palamas Karditsa, Mr. Sakelariou, for the efforts being made to free many of our fellow citizens and the widespread problems and blockade in many settlements. But also in the prefecture of Larissa there are great effects from the deadly floods. In the Municipality of Killeler, with the data that the Municipality has so far, it appears that at least 150,000 acres have been flooded and completely destroyed. The Municipality informed us that at the moment it has 300 people it is temporarily housing because their homes had to be evacuated”, he noted, stressing that “overall, a direct network of civil protection and solidarity is needed to be able to maintain the place today”. “And SYRIZA-PS and its organizations will contribute to this. Obviously, we must all help to support the citizens so that there are no victims and cost of human life”, he added.

“We must note that we are proving to be unprepared as a State for such significant and extreme weather events. This means that we have to upgrade the adequacy of the State. So that it is ready to support citizens and the economy. It is clear that the phenomena we are experiencing are beyond any precedent. We have discussed the effects of the climate crisis and we know that they will be severe”, he said and continued:

“The first thing that needs to be done is to unify the climate policy. It was a mistake to separate, to transfer the policy for adapting to the climate crisis to the Ministry of Civil Protection. We need unified policies with an emphasis on planning and prevention, for flood and forest fire management, spatial planning and protected areas. Long-term planning must be made substantial and especially implemented. At the same time, we need new plans for civil protection, we also asked for it in the Parliament, because the conditions are changing and we need to upgrade the adequacy of the State. We need a strong State to fight and defend the next day the great uncertainties that lie ahead of us”.

“In this direction, I must say that in 2016 the National Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change was approved by the Greek Parliament. It must be updated immediately and upgraded with the new climate data. It was an initiative taken by the SYRIZA government at the time. However, Regional Climate Change Adaptation Plans are also required. For example, in the Region of Thessaly, the relevant regional plan has not yet been completed, although seven years have passed since the relevant legislative initiative. This must be done in all regions of the country as consistently proposed by SYRIZA-PS. And at the same time an important tool that is delayed is the Flood Risk Management Plans,” he said, emphasizing: “Now we understand their usefulness. The areas of Volos affected in the previous days were among the priorities of the Flood Risk Management Plan sanctioned by the SYRIZA government in 2018. These projects were not implemented. But these Plans should have been revised and officially submitted to the European Union by 31.12.2021, but the government did not take the relevant care.

So we already have institutional tools that need to be activated, but we also have new proposals to upgrade the State’s adequacy”.

“We will submit all of this starting tomorrow. Today it is important to support the citizens and the affected areas. After the disaster, however, it is necessary to carry out reforms to upgrade the State, because in these difficult phenomena only a strong State can support the citizens”, concluded S. Famellos.