Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged immediate registration and state support for citizens who suffered property damage in the country’s major summer wildfires, expressing his deepest condolences for three firefighters who died on duty.
Writing in his weekly Sunday review, Mitsotakis said the country owed those firefighters its deepest solidarity and that in their memory Greece must continue to strengthen its capacity to confront increasingly extreme natural phenomena.
Winds that grounded aircraft
The prime minister described conditions as exceptionally difficult, with extreme weather and winds that reached up to 10 Beaufort in several areas. He said those conditions had tested , and continued to test , the resilience of the Fire Service, Civil Protection, local government, and citizens themselves.
He acknowledged that Greece had invested more than ever in Civil Protection in recent years, acquiring more aerial and ground equipment, adopting new technologies, hiring personnel, and reorganising the state mechanism. Even so, he said, there are moments when the intensity of natural phenomena surpasses every human plan and every operational capacity.
When winds blow with such force, he said, even the dozens of aerial assets the country possesses cannot operate safely. In several cases during the fires it was impossible to carry out water pickups or drops because extreme turbulence made flights prohibited, leaving the burden of the battle almost entirely on the people on the front line.
Mitsotakis said teams from the fire service and state relief agency would be alongside citizens who suffered damage so that registration, identification, and state support could be provided immediately. He added that fire prevention saves lives and remains the absolute priority: protecting human life first, then citizens’ property, and then forest ecosystems.
Immigration numbers
Turning to migration, Mitsotakis pointed to scenes in Spain’s Ceuta as a reminder that the issue remains one of Europe’s greatest challenges. He said Greece had chosen since 2019 to apply a strict but fair migration policy that has since become broadly the common European direction.
He cited what he called measurable results: the European Commission has positively assessed Greece’s readiness to implement the Migration and Asylum Pact; sea arrivals in the first seven months of 2026 are down by more than 35 percent compared with the same period last year; and forced returns have increased by 40 percent. The number of people staying on the islands has fallen from around 51,000 in 2019 to 3,197, with organised facilities operating at just 22 percent of capacity.
Tips and maternity leave
On labour policy, Mitsotakis announced that the tax-free threshold for tips paid through point-of-sale terminals would be raised to 6,000 euros per year, calculated on an annual rather than monthly basis. He said the change was fairer because income tax is assessed annually, and that it reflected the reality of many workers , particularly young people , who work seasonally or have more than one employer in a single year.
The government is also expanding maternity leave and benefits to cover mothers with parallel or seasonal employment, adoptive mothers, and women who were self-employed before becoming salaried workers. Workers on part-time contracts will have additional hours they have worked taken into account.
Airbnb.org and island hospitals
In healthcare, Mitsotakis announced an agreement with the non-profit organisation Airbnb.org under which it will provide free accommodation for two months to public-health professionals working on five Greek islands: Santorini, Paros, Ios, Rhodes, and Tinos. He described this as an immediate solution to an acute housing problem facing health staff at the peak of the tourist season.
He also reported that a patient-experience digital evaluation tool deployed across 114 hospitals and 706 clinics has gathered more than 75,000 completed questionnaires, with an average satisfaction score of 4.09 out of 5 and trust in staff exceeding 85 percent. The system is now being extended to paediatric and oncology patients.
Mount Olympus joins UNESCO list
Mitsotakis noted that UNESCO had unanimously decided to add Mount Olympus to its World Heritage List, making it Greece’s 21st entry on the list. He said Greece now ranks among the top five European Union countries by number of UNESCO-listed sites.
The prime minister closed by noting that the Sunday review would be suspended for a few weeks during the summer break, but that work would continue through August. He urged citizens to take care with fire, warning that conditions remain dangerous and that a single careless act is enough to cause major damage.
