Athens pledges to restore everything destroyed by wildfires and implement reforms as Greeks count the cost of the fires
Since the beginning of August, Greece has battled devastating wildfires on the island of Evia, in the Peloponnese, and in Attica. The biggest disaster, however, took place in northern Evia, Greece's second-largest island. Over a million square meters of land has burned, destroying forests, homes and business, and killing thousands of animals in what Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called “the greatest ecological catastrophe of the last few decades." As recently as today, Greece’s fire department scrambled aircraft and ground forces to tackle new blazes.
Nektaria Stamouli, a correspondent with Politico based in Athens covering Greece, Cyprus, and the Balkans, joins The Greek Current to walk us through how devastating these fires have been, the government’s promises to restore areas impacted by the fires, and what reforms and steps experts are calling for in order to make sure Greece can more effectively tackle wildfires in the future.
Read Nektaria Stamouli’s latest piece in Politico Europe: Greeks fret as crises mount: Will this time be different?
You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:
Greece wildfires: 2 new blazes break out amid strong winds
New fire breaks out in Vilia, as blaze in Evia still burns
Common stance on refugee pressure
Greece erects fence at Turkey border amid warnings of Afghan migrant surge