ATHENS – Protesters have rallied outside the Greek Parliament in Athens on Monday over their government’s handling of wildfires that have forced thousands of Greeks to evacuate.
According to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece is facing a “natural disaster of unprecedented proportions,” as 586 wildfires continue burning in “all corners” of the country.
As wildfires continue to rage in the Greek forests, Salaamedia’s Julie Allie spoke to Xariss Mpilis live from Athens regarding the government’s response to the raging fires.
“The problem with Greece is that the government [and] the prime minister do not care about what is going on in [the country] or about the forests,” said Xariss.
Due to the lack of resources, Greece has resorted to foreign aid from other European countries, including Romania, Switzerland, Ukraine and Poland. These countries have sent in fire brigades to assist in containing the spread of the fires.
Xariss thinks that the Greek government should have been protecting their own country instead of making use of foreign aid as fires have been ongoing during this time of the year for decades but no preparations have been made to contain it.
He said: “All this is fake. The government has created all this and people have to know.”
He alleged that the Greek government would rather have the parched vegetation burnt, in order to make land available for development.
“The government is behind the fires because it will be easier if the forest burnt down so they can sell the land or they have probably already sold the land to some companies to build power stations.”
Prime Minister Mitsotakis said any failures in Greece’s firefighting response will be identified, those responsible will be held to account and people whose property was destroyed will be compensated.
There have been no fires reported at any of Greece’s popular historical and tourist attractions.
Listen to the full discussion here:
