Greece’s public order minister has resigned over the deadly forest fire in Attica last week, after spending days defending the way authorities under his supervision handled the disaster.
A government statement said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met with Nikos Toskas and accepted his resignation.
His duties will be passed on to Interior Minister Panos Skourletis.
Just after standing down from his position, Toskas thanked Tsipras for the trust he had shown him.
He said that the natural disaster and the loss of so many lives go beyond his will to continue, something that he had announced publicly from the first moment.
“I have tried all my life to offer to the defense and the protection of this place and its people,” Toskas added.
Tsipras thanked Toskas for “the honesty and dedication he showed during the execution of duties I had given him.”
“The bravery of a general is not measured just at the time of battle but also at the time of the review,” said Tsipras in a tweet.
