ATHENS – As some citizens said they couldn’t understand how a fire that began 25 miles north of Greece’s capital reached northern suburbs and burned homes, major opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis blamed the government.

Kasselakis, who since taking over the party in 2023 has been unable to make a dent in the lead of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitotakis and the ruling New Democracy, mocked the premier’s statement that, “We try to become better every year.”

That came in a ministerial meeting as Mitsotakis returned to Athens from Crete for a briefing on the fires that began in Varnavas and for three days raced toward the capital, requiring an army of firefighters and equipment to stop them.

“I didn’t believe it when I read it, but this explains why …  the propaganda has been attempting to send a signal of ‘successful’ management  (of the fires.) It is the new Mitsotakis narrative: We will say how much we succeeded so that they forget how much we failed,” Kasselakis said.

“This is the difference between the first and second four-year terms.  After the wildfire in Northern Evia: A nationwide address, ‘my fellow citizens’ and lowered eyes,” said Kasselakis, referring to previous years’ fires..

“After the first-ever incursion by fire in history into the urban fabric of Athens (after it had first burned everything in its path for 40 kilometers): Arrogance, self-congratulation and an attempt to completely reverse the reality,” he said.

Mitsotakis, girding for criticism, had also defended the massive response to the fires that he said were worsened by the effects of climate change, a heat wave, drought and gale force winds at times.

Kasselakis ridiculed that, saying that Mitsotakis “will not allow any fire-stricken, homeless citizen who has lost their entire estate, to spoil his myth. The myth of Greece 2.0, which has become Greece Ground Zero.”

The SYRIZA leader said the result was: “Understaffing, lack of equipment, totally ineffective coordination. This is the Mitsotakis Civil Protection, which he might be proud of but not every citizen who loves and cares for his homeland.”

Kasselakis didn’t mention that when the then-named Radical Left SYRIZA was ruling under then-premier Alexis Tsipras – who quit in 2023 after losing twice to Mitsotakis, leading to new leadership – that wildfires in 2018 killed 104 people.

That toll was largely blamed on the Leftists not having a disaster plan, a shambolic response to the fires, not sending the Coast Guard or Navy to pluck survivors out of the sea at the village of Mati and leading to officials being prosecuted.