PM blames climate change, heat waves for huge wildfires that destroyed 100,000 hectares of forest land

By George Gilson

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a parliamentary debate today on the recent disastrous wildfires defended the government's management of the crisis, and he blamed the magnitude of it on the extended heat wave in the Mediterranean and on climate change.

Straight on the heels of the destruction of 100,000 hectares of forest land, in a calm and low-key speech, Mitsotakis stressed the need for a basic inter-party consensus in designing the restructuring of civil protection in the country.

In a thinly veiled comparison with SYRIZA's handling of the 2018 Mati wildfire in which 102 people died, the PM said that the government's handling of the month's wild saved lives.

"Thousands of human lives were saved, and human life is our paramount concern," he declared

Blaming climate change

Mitsotakis blamed climate change for the extent and intensity of the recent wildfires.

He also blamed the protracted and intense heat wave in entire Mediterranean, noting that 1987 was the last very intense heat wave in Greece.

"It turned all our forests into tinder boxes," he said.

Mitsotakis said that the 112 emergency civil protection hotline saved lives and boasted that large and powerful countries such as Germany, France and the UK do not have such a hotline.

"The culture of evacuations is a legacy of these wildfires,"

He also maintained that there were more fire planes this year than ever and that the government plans to buy new fire planes and rent more.

The PM also thanked the fire fighters from other EU countries who played a crucial role in containing the fires.

They included Romanian fire fighters and also Polish fire fighters, who are credited with saving the...