Not a penny allocated to flood protection in Athens, negligent politicians prefer to play the blame game

Every time there are floods, we hear the same propaganda from the media and government about ‘extreme weather’, supposedly one of the menacing culprits behind many of Greece’s problems. The truth is that the damage to the property & homes of the Greek people are not the result of ‘extreme weather’, as it is expected that these floods will occur from time to time in a place like Athens. The damage is a result of corrupt, & temporarily elected governments that come and go while blaming the previous party for the poor infrastructure that allows these predictable floods to cause more damage then they should.

The catastrophic floods that hit Athens in October are another classic example of an elected council that takes no action to fix the infrastructural problems. Instead, they chose to blame the previous party or ‘extreme weather’ for the destruction. Syriza, who are now the majority in the Regional Council of Attica, had taken on a new budget from the previous regional government, but argued there was no time to change it. While they allocated funds to some of their preferred charities, they did not allocate a single penny for flood control projects. The rain water pipeline in Peristeri is yet to be completed, which led to the drowning of an innocent Greek. Meanwhile, Syriza continues to play the blame game, while not actioning the infrastructural requirements needed to prevent this from happening in the future.

Similar problems occurred in neighbouring municipalities, such as Ilion, where the local area failed to sustain the floods. Fearing the need to spend ‘more’ on such flood control projects, we are told this is a ‘messy’ situation that will require some ‘odd jobs’ to fix the ongoing the problems. These ‘odd jobs’ are well documented and have been tracked for years, with many recommendations put forward to city councils to take action. Each and every time this is raised, the blame is placed on the previous regional government for not taking action sooner and nothing continues to happen about the immediate structural changes that are needed. A new approach must be taken, one of collective responsibility, and one of action.

The collective responsibility that is needed is unfortunately not an option, neither for current Greek government or the EU which are proving to be incompatible when it comes to ensuring the safety and integrity of the Greek people. When the previous flooding took place, which devastated Kifissou, we saw exactly how these incompetent bureaucrats failed to sufficiently plan a real life working project. The EU funded the construction of roads, but decided not to fund the much needed flood protection projects that are required. These flood protection plans where to be organised solely by national resources. Due to corruption & negligence, local councils made no effort to invest in flood defence, yet the EU knowingly continued with its project, exposing entire municipalities to dangerous flooding conditions. As always, while big businesses and corrupt politicians profited from the ‘investment’, the Greek people suffered.

Unlike the corrupt political parties, which turn a blind eye to opportunistic investors for the right price, Golden Dawn will not sell out on the security and infrastructural needs of the Greek people. While other parties chose to point the finger and do nothing about the much needed change, Golden Dawn will ensure the appropriate infrastructural changes take place IMMEDIATELY once in power. The other politicians love to talk and play the blame game, but only Golden Dawn is willing to walk the walk. Instead of spending the money of Greek tax payers on building mosques for illegal immigrants, or hosting gay parades, Golden Dawn will ensure funds are allocated to projects that benefit Greek society.