The Press Office of the CC of the KKE issued the following statement on the problems caused by the bad weather throughout the country:

“Unprotected cities and defenseless people against a rotten and hostile state, which is unwilling and unable to take even basic measures of protection against natural phenomena. This is the conclusion that can be drawn from this bad weather, which has so far left two dead and four missing, destroyed infrastructure, flooded houses, shops, crops, cars etc.

The stance of the government, the regional and municipal authorities, which attribute the consequences to the intensity of the phenomenon, is once again a convenient alibi for the long-standing absence of modern flood protection works and other critical infrastructure and networks, for unregulated construction, for the absence of even basic measures, such as the cleaning of streams and manholes, since the magnitude of the bad weather was predicted in good time. For certain areas, such as Magnesia and Northern Evia, which were recently hit by wildfires, this need was even more urgent, and therefore the responsibility even greater.

One can imagine the consequences if a similar phenomenon were to hit the already deforested Attica, where, according to official complaints, no streams have been cleared in Western and Eastern Attica, while flood control works are proceeding at a slow pace.

The reaction of the government and the state apparatus to all this has been exactly the same as in the case of the wildfires, i.e. either ‘run for your lives’ or ‘stay at home’.

It is not a one-way street to be burnt in the summer and drowned the rest of the year; the fact that every now and then the people are at the mercy of the weather cannot be accepted as ‘normality’ as the government and its various mouthpieces would have us believe. All the scientific and technological means for timely prediction and protection of the people are available today.

The problem is the long-standing policy of the current government and all the previous ones, as well as the regional and municipal authorities, which treat the necessary flood and fire protection as an unnecessary cost, while at the same time prioritizing projects that bring profits to capital. It is the EU guidelines that do not consider such expenditures ‘eligible’. It is the bourgeois state that serves only profit and is therefore unwilling and unable to implement an integrated plan in urban planning, spatial planning and civil protection that really serves the contemporary needs of the people.

The KKE demands that the government and all regional and municipal authorities immediately take all necessary measures to protect the lives and property of the people; to support the affected people with housing, food, etc.; to restore the water and electricity networks; to fully compensate them for the damages they have suffered.”

07.09.2023