“The destruction caused by the fire in Attica seems trivial to Mr. Mitsotakis, as evident from his statements on the day of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary,” SYRIZA stated. “He did not even respect the solemnity of the occasion, making the highly provocative claim that the citizens who saw their properties destroyed are ‘fortunately few.’ This comes from the same person who declared just last Tuesday that ‘we are trying to become better.'”
SYRIZA highlighted that more than 100,000 acres, along with dozens of homes and businesses, have been destroyed by the fires, a scale of devastation that, they argue, Mitsotakis fails to grasp. “It is clear that this immense destruction is not enough for Mr. Mitsotakis to realise the magnitude of the damage his government’s policies have caused,” the statement continued. “Greek society cannot wait for the entire country to burn while Mr. Mitsotakis tries to ‘become better.’ Nor can it tolerate the government’s crude attempts to turn black into white after such a disaster.”
Earlier, SYRIZA President Stefanos Kasselakis also criticised Mitsotakis, accusing him of making one of the most divisive and provocative statements of his tenure on a day meant to unite Greeks. “On the day of the Holy Mother, a day when the weak turn to the mother for help, the Prime Minister chose to minimise the suffering of those affected, referring to them as ‘the few who were affected…,'” Kasselakis said.
It is worth noting that Prime Minister Mitsotakis, in his message on August 15th from Chania, expressed gratitude to state officials and volunteers for their efforts in battling the flames in Attica. He assured those affected by the fires—whom he described as “fortunately few”—that the state would act quickly to compensate them.
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