Mitsotakis’ indignation at the ‘deckchair firefighters’

The Cabinet meeting is in progress. The last ministerial before the limited, as he described, the August vacations, with the Prime Minister standing by his proposal on two main issues. Fires and the energy crisis.

“Permit me, dear minister, and a personal comment, an indignation against all these ‘deckchair firemen’ who criticize from a distance and claim that the fires just go out by themselves, in some magical way… It is deep this is an insult, not to us, not to the political leadership, but to the firefighters in the field, to the volunteers, to all those who have not slept. There are many firefighters today who, in the difficult fires, especially in Dadia, have not slept whole nights. A few more respect, therefore, towards these government officials who selflessly fight with phenomena which often, by their nature, exceed human capabilities”, he emphasized.

At the same time, Mr. Mitsotakis stood at the forefront of the energy crisis.
“As we have announced, we continue to build our national dykes against electricity price hikes, effectively exhausting our fiscal margins, which are obviously increased and improved due to the good performance of the national economy,” he noted. “With a legislative provision that the Minister of Energy will bring to the Parliament today, any windows for any evasions regarding fixed charges and games at the expense of consumers will be closed, he added.

The Prime Minister’s entire submission to the Cabinet reads as follows:

“Good morning, dear colleagues. We are meeting again today – the last meeting before the limited August holidays – with a broad agenda, while the battle with the fires continues, a confrontation with the climate crisis which is unfortunately aggravated by both human negligence and conscious incendiary actions.

Because, obviously, forest fires in untamed forests, like the one in Dadia, are of a different type. The repeated fires in livestock zones, such as in Rethymno or Ilia, are different. Fires in peri-urban areas, such as Penteli or Schisto, have other characteristics. All this will obviously be clarified and investigated by the investigation of the Fire Service, but the reality is that all of Mediterranean Europe but, as you can see, the western states of the United States, even England, are being tested by extremely high temperatures and by a prolonged drought.

In the last few days we have an average of more than 50 fires per day in our country. Very few are made known, most are not made known as they are immediately erased and it is something for which, of course, we owe gratitude to all the frontline fighters, all the officials of the state apparatus, but also to our volunteers and the Local Government.

Man’s battle with nature always has unequal characteristics. Our goal is to make it as unequal as possible and with the least possible consequences, with priority always being given to the protection of human life. Therefore, the conditions themselves show us our priorities, what we should put forward. 112 is now working extremely successfully. Organized evacuations so far have been lifesaving for thousands of our fellow citizens and with the assistance, dear Minister, of the Greek Police.

And of course this year we have more firefighters, many more aircraft, specialized bodies from abroad, specialized firefighters, who now enter and attack the fire in the forest. And despite any problems, for the first time there was an organized plan to clean up our forests, while our State now has a new coordination model: Civil Protection, Fire, Police, Army, Self-Government, volunteers, now act under a Unified Center so that to no longer hear the once-familiar protest “Where is the state” or the awkward question “When will the planes fly?”

I present these few facts, not for complacency but for vigilance. We still have a lot of work ahead of us. We have tough days tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, with the winds picking up again. That is why we must all be on the alert. And allow me, dear Minister, and a personal comment, an indignation towards all these “deckchair firemen”, who criticize from a distance and claim that the fires go out by themselves, in some magical way.

This is a deep insult, not to us, not to the political leadership, but to the firefighters in the field, to the volunteers, to all those who have not slept. Today, there are many firefighters who, during the difficult fires, especially in Dadia, have not slept for whole nights. A little more respect, then, for those government officials who selflessly battle phenomena that are often, by their very nature, beyond human capacity.

I now come to the energy issues. As we have announced, we continue to build our national bulwarks against electricity price hikes, effectively exhausting our fiscal margins, which are obviously increased and improved due to the good performance of the national economy.

But I want to remind everyone that natural gas has increased tenfold. Ten times more expensive than it was before this energy crisis started.

In August, however, the accounts of households and businesses will be subsidized in total from all the resources at our disposal, with an amount exceeding one billion, and this for just one month. And in this way, up to 90% of the increases for households are absorbed, horizontally for everyone, regardless of whether it is consumption for a main house or a holiday home.

And, far from fat words and arbitrary calculations, almost half a billion of the surplus revenues of power producers are now transferred to the Energy Transition Fund. In turn they will be returned to the society for its support.

And of course with the new system proposed by the Ministry and which is already a model – it has caused great interest at the European level as well – the fine print is abolished and all providers are now obliged to announce their charges in advance. Transparency is enhanced, while unfair commercial practices and consumer confusion are prevented.

In fact, with a legislative provision that the Minister of Energy will bring to the Parliament today, any windows for any evasion regarding fixed charges and games at the expense of consumers will be closed.

So, the national firewall that we are building is getting taller, getting stronger. But – as we have said many times – the magnitude of this external attack that Europe is receiving makes a common European response a one-way street.

We have said many times that even the latest decisions taken in Brussels may not be as bold as the circumstances require, but it is worth retaining some elements: the general direction to reduce by 15% the consumption of natural gas throughout Europe and secondly, of course, the provision of exemptions achieved by Greece that serve our national energy strategy as a baseline, as a reference point from which our effort to reduce natural gas consumption by 15% will be calculated.

I close with references to the first topics that we will discuss on our agenda: a presentation by the Minister of Education on the overall reforms that have been made in education. We should emphasize that this year, for the first time, the results of the nationwide exams will be announced earlier than ever, by the end of this week, in order to facilitate the planning of parents and new students.

I imagine that the Minister will be able to give us some indication from the data obtained from this year’s exams. I want to restrain the looming increase in admissions to public IEK. It is a substantial upgrade of professional education. I consider it a positive development which justifies the choices made by the Ministry of Education.

We will then give the floor to the Minister for Digital Government to speak to us overall about our strategy for artificial intelligence. Let me remind you that yesterday, in the presence of the Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport and the Minister of Civil Protection, we presented the new application, Gov.gr Wallet, in which each of our fellow citizens can now digitally have their identity card as well as their driver’s license. Two more important interventions that simplify the lives of our fellow citizens and reduce bureaucracy.

Finally, one last thing, but I think it has its own special importance. A few months ago, during the winter, a young fellow citizen of ours, an experienced climber, Ermis Theocharopoulos, lost his life in an accident that happened in Tzoumerka. This accident brought awareness to all of us, highlighted our country’s persistent weaknesses in aerial search and rescue in our mountains.

We now have a new plan that deals with these pathogens, Christos will present it to us. I think it is the least we can do in a country that really wants to promote its tourism product, especially in its mountains, to be able to ensure that we have timely aerial search and rescue, worthy and equivalent to the best European countries in this policy area”.

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– The Council of Ministers meets – The messages of K. Mitsotakis and the TIF milestone