Main opposition New Democracy's shadow environment minister Constantinos Skrekas accused the Syriza government on Thursday for the fire tragedy at Mati for its failure to action more than 1000 demolition orders.
"There are now 1,639 irrevocable demolition orders that have been judged by the highest-level courts that could have been executed in the last 3.5 years and were not," he said in a comment on the crackdown on illegal building announced by the government.
"They are trying to pin the blame on past planning violations when [Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras] was not in power and cannot be held responsible but the reality is entirely different," Skrekas added.
Skrekas noted that a ministerial decision issued just days after the first SYRIZA-ANEL government came to power in 2015 had postponed the demolition of an illegal building in Rafina while a decision by a minister on October 19, 2015 asked for the entire programme for demolitions in forest and re-forestable lands to be suspended in Spata, citing a reason that Skrekas dismissed as "an excuse".
