“In recent months, the government has had to deal with the most severe weather phenomena ever recorded in the country, and this is neither an alibi nor an excuse,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told SKAI

Responding to the opposition’s criticism of a lack of projects, Mr. Marinakis pointed out that “significant works had been done which are proven, but for something that occurs once in 300 years, it was obviously not enough.”

He emphasized that “no project has been withdrawn from the Recovery Fund concerning the affected areas. The four projects that were included will be done with other funding.”

He explained that “the disengagement took place, because if a project is not completed until 2026, then the Fund cannot finance and the money is lost for our country”.

Mr. Marinakis also stated that “more than 60 projects in the affected areas are in the implementation phase and more than 400 km have been cleared to prevent phenomena, however no project could limit 100% the consequences of this phenomenon that we had” .

The government representative said that there has been no question of changing people, pointing out, however, that everyone is judged daily by their work.

Regarding the complaint about the dam on the Kalentzis river, Mr. Marinakis spoke of a typical case of “editing”.

He stated that this is an unsupported claim pointing out that there was never an order to break a dam to save Karditsa and flood Palamas.
“All the local authorities agree, including the mayor Palamas, that such an action could not lead to the flooding of Palamas,” he said, adding that this is a claim that lacks any logic.