Greek fires have left thousands homeless
Opposition leader George Papandreou said the government had proved "pitifully incapable" of dealing with fires throughout the summer and had not been able to save the lives, property and homes of Greek citizens.
In an exclusive interview with VOA, Papandreou said the government was ill prepared.
"We had these fires now for over three month's, and we certainly would have expected much more vigilance, preparation and coordination from the top," he said. "I feel that the government has cut back on financing and training and in organization in this area, when we all knew that the climate changes were a threat to our forest fires."
Mr. Papandreou also dismissed suggestions that terrorism was behind the disaster, saying the problem was simply the state's inability to deal with large-scale fires of this nature and magnitude.
"We have seen much discussion about possible terrorist threats, I think this is simply nonsense, and this nonsense may have more to do with the elections than any real threat," added Mr. Papandreou.
Greek government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros says the administration has done everything it can under the difficult circumstances.
"What we experienced in the past five to six days, it is an overwhelming outbreak of fires, forest fires throughout the country and the extreme, severe weather conditions, and we had a series of fires that no other country in Europe has ever experienced before," he said.Many Greeks believe land developers are responsible for burning forests to make way for new construction, taking advantage of the lack of a land registry and clear zoning laws.
Some estimates in the Greek media claim damages from the fires to be around $1 billion.
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