Friday’s abrupt resignation of Citizens’ Protection Minister Notis Mitarachi amid a veritable “epidemic” of wildfires in the east Mediterranean country – punctuated by a massive explosion at a central Greece air force munitions depot a day earlier – was reportedly due to the latter’s absence from Athens.
In fact, media reports late this week had Mitarachi vacationing on the iconic Dodecanese island of Patmos at the same time as a multi-front wildfire was consuming an extensive stretch of land in larger Rhodes, the capital of the specific island chain, to the south.
Officially, in his resignation letter Mitarachi cited “personal reasons” for his decision.
The wildfire on Rhodes generated the biggest peacetime evacuation in modern Greek history, with some 19,000 locals and tourists transported out of fire-affected areas – a development that drew heightened international media attention.
The citizens’ protection portfolio, essentially the public order ministry, includes oversight of law enforcement.
Sources from within Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ Maximos Mansion government office revealed that the now ex-minister was first summoned to provide an explanation for his absence and ill-timed holiday at a crucial time when the state’s entire civil protection apparatus remains in the field to combat the fires.
Mitarachi, who is elected from the eastern Aegean island of Chios, was previously the recipient of an unofficial “yellow card” several weeks ago for proposing the establishment of a mounted police unit without previous consultation with the Cabinet. He also unilaterally announced that a university campus security force, which exists only on paper so far, would be scrapped.
A government spokesman later refuted his announcement.
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