Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in a live television interview on Saturday morning, directly referred to the unprecedented recent flooding in and around the Spanish city of Valencia, which has left scores of victims, pointing to now accelerated works in the greater Athens-Piraeus area to avoid the worst repercussions from such an extreme weather phenomenon.
Although an extended period of balmy and sunny weather continues in much of Greece, with rainfall now on the lower end of annual precipitation levels, the tragic images from Valencia have again brought anti-flooding infrastructure and preparedness to the forefront around Europe. Greece faced similar destruction, albeit without the scores of victims, in early September 2023, when an intense storm front poured torrential rains on the central Thessaly plain, causing damage that’s still visible today.
The Greek leader cited maintenance and cleanup efforts along the Kifissos (classical form Cephissus) waterway – which emanates from the foothills of Mt. Parnitha and drains into the Faliro Bay, southern coastal Athens – in conjunction with the Attica regional government, which is the relevant authority for the entire watershed basin.
He also again praised the 112 warning system that issues notifications to residents via SMS texts, which his government instituted after the deadly Mati wildfire in July 2018.
“I would rather use 112 unnecessarily once, than be in a situation where we could have at least alerted citizens to protect themselves,” he added, dismissing mostly opposition criticism of overuse of the system.
In answer to an unrelated question, he again maintained that his center-right government’s goal is to raise the minimum monthly wage to 950 euros by 2027.
“In 2019 (after his New Democracy party’s victory) we inherited the minimum wage at 650 euros, in 2027 it will be 950 euros. An increase of roughly 50% … In our second four-year term, our first priority is to increase wages, not only the minimum wage but also the average wages,” Mitsotakis said, while forecasting that by 2027 the average monthly wage in the country will exceed 1,500 euros.
