“Just as it is unthinkable for soldiers to force their way into the Pentagon or policemen into GADA, similarly it is unthinkable for minorities of some seasonal firefighters to break into the Operations Center, the ESKEDIK, and the Ministry of Civil Protection. These things don’t happen. This cannot be tolerated in organized states and in organized states”, said the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikiliasin an interview with Radio Parapolitika 90.1. As he characteristically said, “these few, I believe, provoked the 2,500 seasonal firefighters who did their job, and made an effort with measurable results throughout the summer together with the volunteers, together with the forest commanders and the permanent ones”. He added that on this basis the meeting with the representatives of the seasonal firefighters will be held on Wednesday morning, noting that from the beginning it was promised that as soon as the fire fighting season ends, he will hold meetings with them, before any decisions are made for the next fire fighting season .

“They broke down the doors. They created episodes. They insulted their colleagues. They were banging on the windows SCHEDULE at the time when two fires were in progress, in Chania and Ikaria. Everyone was in, the leadership and their colleagues, and they were working. These are not things. And the Greek Police – because I want to be fair – waited patiently for 6 hours and discussed with them. They were asking them to go out, just as their leadership, their representatives, were asking them. They were told “guys you are wrong. You have entered wrongly. Get out”. And they didn’t come out. After hours of remaining in the area, they told the Police, Mr. Brigadier General “we will go live on the central news bulletins and then we will go out”. That didn’t happen. They went live on the channels and then refused to leave. So the Chief Prosecutor ordered that the area be evacuated. This area cannot have anyone inside, it is the security area. In this area, at ESKEDIK we deal with floods, fires, earthquakes and extraordinary events. I wonder if at that time the fires got away, if something else happened and we couldn’t manage it, who would take responsibility?’ underlined Mr. Kikilias.

“The evidence is irrefutable, those who shout and abandon us, I mean for the opposition parties and especially SYRIZA, handed over the Fire Department in disarray” said Mr. Kikilias and spoke of absurdity and petty political exploitation, pointing out: “I think it’s politics shameless this. You have made a law in 2019, with this law you hired them as seasonal, and you criticize the next ones because they apply this law, which you made and hired them. Why weren’t you hiring them permanently then?

What we did is, from the pool of 2500 seasonal firefighters, we hired 1500 as forest commanders for seven years, i.e. permanent.

In other words, with increased scoring and with the criteria of sports and the age limit of 35 years, from the 2,500 initial seasonal firefighters of 2019, we took and built 16 forest commando units, airborne, new guys well trained, excellent who do a very, very good job” .

Finally, regarding the recruitment to the Fire Brigade, the Minister stated: “In 2019, the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis took over the Fire Brigade with 13,100 permanent firefighters. At the moment we are up to 14900 firefighters and with the 2025 recruitment we will go to almost 15500. Plus the 2500 seasonals we will be taking on again in the summer, we will have 18000 firefighters in the next fire season, which is more than we have ever had in history of the Fire Brigade”.