The increasingly embattled Tsipras government went into “damage control” mode this week, promising to demolish hundreds if not thousands of illegally built structures, with those located in forested areas, in dry streams/gullies and even directly on coastline taking precedence.
The development comes amid last week’s deadly wildfire in a coastal stretch of eastern Attica prefecture (east of the greater Athens area at the Mati site), where between 85 to 95 people died when a blaze fueled by gale force winds scorched the pine-covered holiday resort dotted with such illegally built – and subsequently legalized – structures. More than a dozen people drown while fleeing at night from the flames and smoke into the rough sea.
Although illegal building did not cause the devastating wildfire, impede preventative measures, a robust emergency response or the utter absence of an order to evacuate the specific area, the Tsipras government has now mostly focused on the modern Greece scourge of illegal construction and land development, which plagues thousands of areas in the east Mediterranean country that lie outside town planning zones.
After a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday, the relevant environment minister, Giorgos Stathakis, promised the accelerated demolition of 61 such structures in flood-ravaged Mandra township (west of Athens), Lavrio (extreme southeast Attica prefecture), on the foothills beneath Mt. Penteli, overlooking Athens from the north, and the upscale Saroniko resort along southeast coastal Athens.
In a related development, a deputy shipping and island policy minister on Friday said the issue of laying blame or responsibility for the deadly wildfire will be broached when the ongoing efforts to deal with the catastrophe conclude.
