Mati

The taste that always lingers after a disaster is bitter and sour. It's hard to admit that once again, something went wrong and that mistakes and omissions were made. This pattern has repeated itself time and again - in Ilia, Mount Parnitha, Mati, Evia and the Dadia Forest with the wildfires, and in Thessaly with the floods. 

Former Greek Fire Chief Vasilis Matthaiopoulos was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, suspended, by the Thessaloniki Mixed Jury Court on Friday for attempted unlawful coercion and breach of duty.

A court in Athens convicted five former senior firefighting and disaster response officials on Monday, over a 2018 wildfire outside the capital that killed more than 100 people.

The fire that swept through the seaside town of Mati, east of Athens, was the deadliest in the country's history. Residents and vacationers, many trapped in their cars, were killed as they tried to escape.

Escapist tendencies are perfectly understandable in anyone who is involved in public life in Greece, and especially if they are in a post that entails serious responsibilities. To put it bluntly, this is not an easy country. The state is riddled with people like the stationmaster in Larissa involved in the Tempe crash and the Fire Service officials on duty during the deadly Mati wildfire.

Thirteen collective requests for the annulment of the presidential decree concerning urban planning in the 2018 fire-affected regions of Eastern Attica, such as Mati, Rafina and Marathonas are being deliberated by the Council of State. 

Tempe must not become another Mati. The probe into this national trauma must not drag on. Parliament has proven ineffective in its role as an investigator.

The people who cause devastating and sometimes even deadly wildfires every year are effectively not treated like criminals. This is not only because the punishments foreseen in the law are utterly disproportionate to the consequences of their actions.

An expert testifying on behalf of the families of the victims of the deadly fire in Mati, east Attica, in the summer of 2018 is expected to testify for a second day on Monday, after delivering a scathing assessment of the authorities' response on Friday.

Turkish provocations and the Cyprus problem are expected to be at the heart of the contacts during Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades' visit to Athens on Wednesday. 

According to Nicosia, Turkey's behavior is not consistent with a constructive attitude that could allow for a sincere discussion on a solution to the Cyprus problem. 

Matic pointed out that this was unequivocally proven by the trial, which ended yesterday in the first instance verdict of members of the State Security Service (SDB).
"On the same day he was killed, it was clear that the state was behind it because it had been destroying his newspaper for months prior to that. Curuvija was its target", Matic told TV Prva.