The biggest flaw in Greece’s environmental policy is the inability of the state to enforce its laws. Parliament makes laws but the executive branch of power behaves in an ignorant or arbitrary fashion. The Greek state has only one option – to implement the law.

The state apparatus must punish those who dump waste into our rivers, build illegal properties in forest areas and expand the city limits into no-building zones. Failure to impose the law is a bomb in the foundations of peaceful social coexistence. Failure to impose the law encourages law-breaking behavior.

This summer’s devastating forest fires have confronted the conservative administration with its responsibilities.

The government has a very simple task to perform – a task that is common to all European states: make sure people abide by the law.