PM cites Greek wildfires to rebut critics, warns of “verbal pyromaniacs”

Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama has been active on social media in recent days – posting updates on the wildfire situation and answering accusations from the opposition, followers, and media about the lack of emergency assets such as planes, to use against the annually recurring wildfires. Among other postings, he shared a video of the situation with the fires in Greece, arguing that even countries with large aerial fleets face extreme conditions.

Why is this important: PM Rama is trying to push back on claims that the absence of more aircraft or better forest management is to blame, while claiming that a changing climate and the human factor are to blame. But while both may be true, it remains true that the wildfires that this year never before seen dimensions have been a recurring phenomenon that has hit Albania every summer with escalating ferocity, while the government’s reaction and measures have proven inadequate to meet the challenge.

Context: Sharing footage from Greece, the prime minister responded to criticism by pointing out that even Greece with its far greater resources and experience in fighting fires had been unable to solve the problem.

“Our neighboring country has 77 firefighting airplanes and a long history of fighting fires, but the fight against fires in the conditions of climate change is today far more complicated than it looks,” he wrote.

What else: Authorities say conditions have improved in recent days thanks to lower temperatures and widespread rainfall that helped tame active fronts. The government has repeatedly argued that climate change is amplifying fire behavior across the Mediterranean, and that arson – now the subject of criminal investigations – remains a major driver of this summer’s outbreaks.

What’s next: Emergency services will continue aerial and ground monitoring for the rest of the summer season, while prosecutors pursue arson cases flagged by police and local authorities.