Greece fires: Remarks by the KKE General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas

Extensive fires have raged in many parts of Greece, including in the outskirts of Athens, the island of Evia (Euboea) and Peloponnese with thousands of people fleeing as protracted heat wave turned forests into tinderboxes and flames threatened populated areas, electricity installations and historic sites. 

In a statement, the General Secretary of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Dimitris Koutsoumbas said:

“The members and the friends of the KKE, its deputies and those elected to regional and municipal councils are in battle positions against the wildfires, by the side of the people who are being tested once again.

This isn't the moment for big words; now is a moment of fighting for the suppression of fires which are destroying natural environment and the people's property, threatening human lives.

Now it is the time for solidarity and assertion, so that no one will be left alone, for the immediate relief of the victims, for the necessary state support in order for these people to get back on their feet.

But it is also the moment for reflection, because the absence of a comprehensive fire protection plan with a focus on prevention has been evident for another year. For another year, the appeals of the KKE from the beginning of the firefighting season to the government for measures were ignored and met the well-known false assurances that “the state mechanism is ready”.

KKE leader Koutsoumbas visiting Rovies village, Evia

We are all giving this fight”.

Today, Friday 6 August, Dimitris Koutsoumbas, alongside with other Party members, visited the affected areas in Evia.

Yesterday, commenting on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' public statement, the Press Bureau of the CC of the KKE pointed out:

“The invocations to individual responsibility and the statements about the extreme weather conditions do not suppress the fires. The fires are being extinguished with a comprehensive fire protection plan that focuses on prevention and taking into account the current conditions; but this wasn't ensured be neither the current government nor the previous ones, despite the repeated calls of the KKE in the beginning of each firefighting season.

Even now, the government should provide all the necessary means, so that the fires will be extinguished, so that natural environment and public property won't face greater damage, so that human lives will not be endangered”.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM ©