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It should be noted that on 12 November 2012 Germany’s Deputy Minister of labour Hans-Joachim Fuhtel had visited the base of the NGO in Rizomata, Imatia.

Almost a year later Germany carried out a ceremony at which it delivered to the Voluntary Corp of Greek Firemen 5 vehicles which, as announced, "have been donated by the Ministry of Defence of Germany in favour of the Voluntary Corp of Greek Firemen. They will be transformed into fire tanks with a capacity of 10,000 litres, thus becoming the largest vehicles of this category in Greece."

The delivery of the vehicles took place at a special ceremony within the context of the fourth Greek- German meeting that was held in Nuremberg between 21 and 23 October, in the presence of representatives of the political leadership of the two countries, local governments and of Greek and German media. Among those present were Deputy Minister Fuhtel, an authorized representative of the Chancellor for the meeting, Yiannis Michelakis, Minister of the Interior of Greece, Nikos Sahinidis, president of the Voluntary Corp of Greek Firemen and others.

Part of a report by Focus magazine was the bombshell

Let us recall that in late November 2013 the German Focus magazine published a report concerning the imposition of a higher tax on imported fire engines donated to Greece from Germany and Austria. The publication thoroughly examines the issue of voluntary organizations of firemen and the gangs that allegedly operate in this industry.

The report also notes that the Greek professional fire department with its 9,200 employees required 350 million euro per year whereas the financial requirements of founder and head of the Voluntary Corp of Greek Firemen Nikos Sahinidis and his 1,200 volunteers amounted to 2 million euro in 10 years and, because they were not enough to improve the organization's budget, he had paid out of his pocket the sum of 74,500 euro.

Nikos Sahinidis believes that the state competition lies behind these malicious actions because his business model disturbs the functioning model of the fire department. A typical example is the fact that, while the professional fire service buys the fire pumps for 120 euro per piece, Sahinidis has bought the commodity from Germany for just 12 euro.

"Such contracts with highly inflated costs are a common phenomenon", states the editor of Focus, arguing that this is how bribery occurs.

The union of officers of the fire service had sharply responded to these assertions, stressing in its message that "the initiators of this attack, through the German press, have failed to cover with mud the activities of the fire service and to sabotage the Greek-German cooperation in this area."

In a letter to Wolfgang Dolt, formerly German Ambassador in Athens, the union declared its "determination to further develop the cooperation between the Greek and German fire services."

Nikos Sahinidis is being criticized by the Greek federation of unions of employees of the fire service too, the reason for this being his statements before the local DELTATV channel, when he used phrases such as "a lazy fire department", "permanently employed firemen who receive money for nothing or for doing a job only one month throughout the year."

Before "To Vima" newspaper, president of the federation Nikolaos Athanatos notes that its legal department has undertaken to examine the fragment of these qualifications and, if they are considered offensive, it will initiate the necessary legal procedures against Nikos Sahinidis.