The death of a Greek coordinator and a Danish pilot during firefighting operations at Porto Germeno has prompted Greece's main opposition party to challenge the prime minister's record on civil protection.
Kostas Tsoukalas, spokesperson for PASOK-Movement for Change, said the loss of the two crew members filled everyone with grief, but added that the prime minister's claims to have invested more than ever in civil protection were not borne out by results.
Tsoukalas said Greece was living through yet another summer of what he called a fiery nightmare, and that three other firefighters had lost their lives battling blazes in Crete and Gythio.
While saying this was not the moment to assign blame, he argued the first adverse weather conditions had exposed gaps in civil protection the government had not fixed, because it persisted with a model that did not invest equally in prevention and suppression.
He questioned why the Recovery Fund no longer included the delivery of 11 Air Tractor amphibious firefighting aircraft for island groups, the upgrade of seven Canadair CL415 aircraft, and the creation of 13 regional civil protection centers.
Cultural body and tips tax
Tsoukalas also questioned why the government was creating a new state company to take over profitable functions from ODAP, an organization the Culture Ministry itself had described as successful, with revenues above 150 million euros and recovery-fund projects worth 60 million euros.
On proposed changes to tip taxation, he said the prime minister was trying to persuade people he cared about workers while simply trying to fix a problem of his own making.
