Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras toured the wildfire-ravaged Mati settlement, in coastal eastern Attica prefecture, early on Monday morning, a week after a deadly blaze resulted in 91 fatalities, including more than a dozen children.
Tsipras’ visit was not announced and he was not accompanied by reporters or television crews – sans the state broadcaster – a departure from previous statements and appearances related to the catastrophe, such as an urgently held Cabinet meeting last week, which was again broadcast live by the public television network.
His arrival also comes days after the leftist prime minister assumed what he called the “political responsibility” for the deadly wildfire.
The only resignations so far in the wake of the Mati destruction have come from two municipal office-holders, deputy mayors, in the township that encompasses Mati, namely, the Marathon-Nea Makri municipality.
Adding to Tsipras’ and his embattled leftist-rightist coalition’s despair are charges by the union of public hospital physicians and Greece’s version of the center for disease control (KEELPO or HCDCP) that the health ministry’s leadership knew that numerous fatalities had been sustained in the first hours of the blaze last Monday, and ahead of the Greek prime minister’s subsequent appearance at the fire brigade’s operations room.
Tsipras’ visit came just after daybreak, where he was seen, in a handful of photographs released by his office, talking to firefighters, military personnel and power company work crews.
The visit, as expected, generated a firestorm of reactions by political parties and on Greek-language social media.
“He needed an entire week since the national tragedy, like a thief, to tour Mati, and in a completely isolated setting,” main opposition New Democracy said in an immediate statement, referring to Tsipras’ avoidance of contact with local residents.
