Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras said his Greek Left Union (ELAS) would finance higher public spending by ending what he called a “party of corruption” under the current conservative administration, while ruling out tax increases on the middle class and businesses.
In the third part of an interview with news website in.gr published Wednesday, Tsipras sharply criticized the government’s handling of wildfires and civil protection, arguing that climate change should not be used as an excuse for inadequate preparation.
“Climate change cannot be an excuse every time for disasters,” Tsipras said, arguing that the focus should be on protecting communities from the extreme weather events it produces. He accused the government of believing that “with 112, it has done its job,” referring to Greece’s emergency alert system, which has been used to evacuate communities threatened by wildfires.
Tsipras said Greece had missed major opportunities to strengthen its civil protection infrastructure through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund. He argued that even a fraction of the country’s defense spending could have been redirected toward firefighting aircraft and helicopters.
He also criticized the condition of Greece’s electricity distribution network, which has been blamed for many wildfires, saying power lines near forests should be moved underground to reduce the risk of fires. Tsipras said the government had received 187 million euros from the EU recovery fund for that purpose and questioned how the money had been used.
