By Penelope Galliou

Between Larissa and Thessaloniki, the attention of the tenants of Megaros Maximos and the prime minister is focused, who are holding successive meetings and teleconferences in the final stretch for the presence of Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the TIF, at the weekend, where he will develop the economic plan of the government as it was formed after the disastrous floods in Thessaly.

According to government sources, the prime minister attaches great importance both to his speech at the Vellideo Conference Center and to the usual press conference that will follow on Sunday, where the devastating floods in Thessaly and their immediate and long-term response will take the lion’s share, in this “different” TIF.

In any case, what government sources communicate is that the Thessalian events will not change the core and direction of the prime minister’s announcements, but will strengthen his firm position on the need for a radical restructuring of the state and its critical structures, placing at the top of the priorities the reorganization of Civil Protection, both at the level of structures and persons, given that it was also seen from the result that the climate crisis is present and further protection against it must be organized.

At the same time, the prime minister is expected to send messages of “conflict” with all the bad texts of the state that are plaguing these days and the public debate about the disasters in Thessaly and the responsibilities that exist, while he will also refer to the chronic delays in the functioning of the state in sectors such as, among others, the Government, Health and Transport.

Government officials have, however, taken care in the last few days to make it clear that the so-called TIF basket will be frugal this year and will be limited to the absolutely necessary. As already announced by the Minister of Finance, Kostis Hatzdakis, there will be no extension of the market pass until the end of the year, while in the very next day a supplementary budget with direct expenses for Thessaly will be submitted.

The personal difference allowance to pensioners will be given from January, while normally the increases to civil servants that have already been voted will be given but from then on the rest of the benefits will be limited and the question remains whether the special allowance will finally be given to the firefighters who it is of low fiscal cost and mainly symbolic, like the heating allowance.

As far as it is concerned, the extraordinary allowance that was planned to be given to pensioners in December, may be transferred to January in order to be registered as an expense in the next year’s budget. According to information, however, the prime minister is expected to announce at the TIF a special tax for natural disasters, which, however, as they predicted, will not be a universal tax.

At the same time as all the other interventions that the prime minister will announce from the TIF, government officials insist that the government continues to keep the safety of the vulnerable on its list of priorities against the continued precision, which is expected to be exacerbated by the shortages that will be created in the internal market, since the disasters in Thessaly.

However, for the first time in the annals this year at the TIF, only the ministers whose portfolios are related to the economy and productivity will “attend”, while according to information, the ministers who are in charge of managing the problems caused by the floods in Thessaly they will be in the field and in their ministries and not in Thessaloniki.​