Editorial: Commitments

The snow from the storm named Medea has already melted on the sidewalks of Athens’ northern suburbs.

Yet they are full of trunks from fallen trees that remind residents of the difficult if not nightmarish days they experienced last week due to a single snowfall.

One faced the inability of competent authorities to communicate and the blame game at all levels of the bureaucracy.

State organisations, services, and elected officials were passing the buck between them by exploiting the diachronic dysfunction of overlapping jurisdictions that allow anyone to claim they are not competent for the powers that others say they have.

The prime minister said that his government will put an end to all this.

“We shall manage it centrally with draft legislation that will be tabled in Parliament by the interior ministry,” he declared.

Many governments in the past have undertaken this commitment so it is crucial that it materialise this time. The state has a duty to take action and not let its promises remain a dead letter.

A framework law is a step in the right direction but the passing of the bill on its own does not suffice. It must be implemented.

It is now necessary for the state to see the bigger picture, such as making a subterranean PPC electrical grid so as not to keep the grid exposed to increasingly harsh weather due to climate change and to the human nature of some people who see their omissions as a mere mishap on their watch.