Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented his conclusions about the change of doctrine implemented in this fire fighting season at the event of the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection for the evaluation of the 2024 fire fighting season.

Among other things, the prime minister emphasized that the preparation for the fire fighting season takes place in the winter, and the results of this preparation become visible in the summer.

The first conclusion, and the most important, as he said, has to do with the fact that it pays to cooperate with all the authorities in a coherent plan, which starts with prevention, continues with the treatment of the fire and ends with restoration, where this is necessary. “And when we talk about everyone involved, I mean, first and foremost, the Local Government officials, I mean the Forest Service, I mean the Armed Forces, I mean our volunteers, who, I would say, for the first time, all these links in this chain could and did work and coordinate much more successfully than in the past,” said Mr. Mitsotakis and added:

“For example, the Forest Service is the one that indicated the important forest prevention and clean-up projects that had to be done outside the fire season. And the truth is that the AntiNero program allocated more than 300 million euros to such prevention and cleaning actions, an amount which – I think the Ministry of the Environment will be able to confirm – is unprecedented, unique, for the country’s data. However, we have seen the results. I would say that the most characteristic element from the presentation made by Vassilis (Kikilias) has to do with the fact that the forests that burned this year were actually much, much less than the average of the last 20 years and this demonstrates that this the prioritization we adopted for the protection of forest ecosystems finally paid off».

He also referred to a new firefighting doctrine that dictates intervention within the fires themselves to “not passively waiting for the fire to burn the forest until it reaches a road or threatens the residential fabric».

This – said Mr. Mitsoitakis – is a big, a basic differentiation in terms of the doctrine of dealing with forest fires, which for the first time we implemented to this extent, and I think with this effectiveness, this year.

The second conclusion that the Prime Minister reached by studying the data of this fire season, has to do with the fact that technology can indeed be an invaluable ally in this great effort to deal with a climate crisis. “When we talk about technology, I’m referring to the ability we have to use – and to thank our donors again – drones for aerial surveillance. Because what has changed this year compared to the past is the very fast attack of forest fires – if they are first detected. The sooner we see a smoke or fire outbreak, the sooner we can intervene” pointed out Mr. Mitsotakis and added:

“In cooperation with aerial vehicles, which for the first time fly loaded on difficult days of the year, early detection is what will make the difference between a fire being controlled in the first minutes or a fire escaping, as it unfortunately did at least once in Attica, and then it becomes extremely difficult to deal with, especially if we are in a danger index of “5”».

He praised the presence of the drones, and thanked donors for their donations, saying “if they have any doubt that their money went anywhere, I assure you it did.”

The third conclusion is that there is no justification for complacency, said the prime minister, and he emphasized that complacency obviously cannot be justified, because unfortunately the climatic conditions today are very different from what they were 5 or 10 years ago.

“So, as much as we improve, we must recognize that unfortunately the climate crisis, especially in the Mediterranean basin, is already with us. And maybe next year we will be luckier, it will snow more, it will blow less, we will have less flammable material, but we know that statistically things will get worse. We’re going to have an increase in temperatures, we’re going to have more severe weather, we’re going to have more storms. We are not talking about these issues today, because we are focusing on the assessment of the fire season, but we know that our degree of preparedness for dealing with climate crises must be increasingsaid Mr. Mitsotakis.

Finally, the prime minister thanked each and every one of them for the enormous effort they made during this fire fighting period “so that we can have these results”.

“And of course, a special “thank you” to our donors, whom we will have the opportunity to honor and award afterwards, proving that corporate social responsibility, the feeling of philanthropy, the need to all contribute to this very large collective effort , fortunately it has not yet disappeared in our country. And, indeed, your contribution, especially in enabling us to procure modern technological systems for the early detection of fires, was absolutely critical. I think it also points the way to an even closer cooperation between the Ministry and all those who want to support this very big fight that we all started together five years agoadded the prime minister.

Need for collective consciousness

The last conclusion reached by Mr. Mitsotakis has to do with the fact that for the first time “I believe that a broader collective consciousness is being formed in the country that dealing with these challenges cannot only concern the state”. He said that obviously the state always has the first say and the first responsibility of the state, whether we are talking about the central authority or the Local Self-Government, is the protection of the life and property of the Greek citizens.

“However, we are all participants in this great effort and everyone does and must do what they are responsible for. And I believe that this participation of the citizens, through the cleaning of the plots and from the registration on the relevant platform, was finally a very indicative and very encouraging first step that everyone will do their part and support this very large collective effort, either to protect his own property or to protect his neighbor’s property. It will ultimately help us to be more effective in dealing with such extreme phenomena,” he noted.

He emphasized with emphasis that the collective consciousness that is acquired dictates that through individual initiative we do not only protect individual property, but promote the collective good, help the Fire Department. “Go ask the firefighters who had to do work within the urban fabric, and they’ll tell you how relieved they were that far fewer plots were hotbeds of fast-spreading fire. Together we took an important step in the right direction,” he said.

European resources

Mr. Mitsotakis saved particular emphasis on the European dimension of this effort to prepare the fire fighting season. He said that the country for the first time managed and secured from European funds a huge investment program in the Civil Protection infrastructure, more than 2 billion euros, the “AEGIS” program.

“Greece, however, today I would say is at the forefront of modernizing civil protection infrastructure, utilizing European resources to really create a civil protection system that will be at the forefront of European efficiency. And that’s what we’ve donesaid Mr. Mitsotakis.

“Some older ones, and I’m referring specifically to those in uniform, remember what we received in 2019 and where we are today. We have not completed this route, but surely even the most pessimistic person will recognize that we have put in a lot of effort» he added and pointed out:

“Europe must be a helper in this effort and I am personally a protagonist at the European level so that the climate policies of the European Union do not focus only on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, how do we reach, that is, what we call “net zero ” in 2050. It is a very important priority and we are obviously implementing it because we are protagonists in renewable energy sources and we have every reason to invest in clean energy and the green transition».