VOLOS, Greece – Major opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis made a big stink in Volos, where more than 100 tons of freshwater fish flushed into the port city died after hitting saltwater and rotted away, blaming the New Democracy government.

He said the Conservatives administration failed to ensure that a protective net in place to prevent such a disaster wasn’t implemented, joining Volos Mayor Achilleas Beos who said the stench drove tourists away even during a cleanup.

The fish were in the harbor right up against the edge of restaurants and businesses and smelled so bad no one wanted to go near the area with the summer tourism season still in full bloom but visitors being driven away..

Kasselakis visited the Xirias Stream, where a protective net was placed to prevent more dead fish from reaching the sea and expressed his surprise at the images he had seen, said the state’s Athens-Macedonia News Agency AMNA.

He referred to the environmental burden on the port of Volos and the Pagasetic Gulf and the chain of environmental and socioeconomic repercussions, as well as the need for immediate action to support the local economy, the report said.

He took a shot at the Environment Ministry which he said was conspicuous by its absence during the calamity, the agency supposed to supervise works at Lake Karla, saying it had dumped the problem onto the regional authority.

“What is happening in Magnesia is immoral and is bankrupting an entire generation,” pointing to deadly 2023 floods in the region that raised the level of Lake Karla before a drought dropped it, sending fish toward Volos.

He also visited officials in Thessaly, where the floods cut deep into the output of Greece’s agricultural heartland and which is struggling to rebound, getting a briefing on the damages caused to the region.

He said the tribulation could have been avoided and complained there was no warning what was happening and said the government “dropped the ball” and hasn’t provided clear indications of subsidies for affected businesses.

“There has to be responsibility. There was responsibility. If the government has made a mess of the executive state and does not know where this lies, it should expel all those that share the responsibility. It is that simple,” Kasselakis said.

He said Lake Karla supervising body was abolished in favor of  a “confused, centralized system,” and that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was “preparing a fiesta … to announce anti flooding projects, at a time when the Pagasetic Gulf is inundated by dead fish, as a result of last year’s flood, and residents of the area are in despair.”

SYRIZA said, “The government’s inertia this past year is not simply provocative, it is dangerous. The entire region of Thessaly is facing an unprecedented total catastrophe with dramatic repercussions on the region’s economy and society. And Mr Mitsotakis, instead of assuming initiatives directly, has found yet another opportunity for business with Dutch companies, ignoring provocatively the domestic scientific community.”