While exhausted residents face flames and devastation, the Greek government has once again attempted to reframe the crisis. In his weekly address, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described a “titanic struggle” by the state apparatus to contain the fires, praising evacuation alerts and emergency coordination. But for those left to defend their communities with little to no support in the critical early hours, such language rang hollow.
Opposition voices have fiercely criticised the government’s narrative. SYRIZA-PS parliamentary leader Sókratis Famellos warned that the fires expose long-standing structural failures; from underfunded local authorities and inadequate staffing of fire services to the shelving of key prevention plans like the Goldammer Report. Famellos stressed that wildfires are not just natural disasters but political events, shaped by policy choices and systemic neglect.
The Communist Party (KKE) condemned the repeated invocation of “extreme weather” and the “climate crisis” as a rhetorical shield, accusing the government of abandoning fire prevention and relying solely on last-minute evacuations. “If you speak of ‘existential risks’ but fail to act accordingly, you are simply a hypocrite and a denier of your responsibilities,” their statement read.
Alexis Charitsis, leader of the New Left, echoed these criticisms, calling the Mitsotakis administration a “government of scorched earth.” He cited broken promises to make Greece a “forest firefighting hub” and pointed to unimplemented civil protection projects, as well as hundreds of firefighters still waiting for permanent employment status. “What preparedness and what civil protection are we talking about?” he asked.
Once again, the gulf between political messaging and lived reality is marked by the ash left behind: burned livestock, collapsed livelihoods, and residents forced to fight fires alone. With extreme fire risk persisting across much of the country, many fear the worst is not yet over.
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