Citizen protection minister resigns

The wildfires that have scorched large tracts of land in the Greek islands and the mainland have also had a political victim, Citizen Protection Minister Notis Mitarakis.

Mitarakis, who used to be in charge of the country's security forces, including the coast guard, submitted his resignation Friday for "personal reasons" and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis promptly accepted it.

Actually, what forced Mitarakis' resignation was that "he was absent outside Athens while battles were being fought."

Greek media, including Kathimerini and private TV channel Mega, had reported Mitarakis' presence on a yacht off the island of Patmos on Thursday. He returned to Athens later that day.

While there had been other negative publicity surrounding Mitarakis - two of his announcements concerning the police were walked back by Mitsotakis himself - the latest episode...