Mitsotakis announces Special Consumption Tax return to farmers to continue in 2024

The prime minister also announced that the return to farmers of the Special Consumption Tax for diesel will be extended in 2024: "In consultation with the finance ministry and as our economy is doing well, the return of the special consumption tax for diesel will be extended into 2024; another 82 million euros, in other words."

Addressing the political parties, Mitsotakis said: "I choose joint effectiveness over party aims. I choose rapprochement over tension. This is how I operated during the last session we had on the issue of Thessaly in November but also every time I expressed positions on this issue." He also noted that Thessaly's rebirth exceeds the limits of the government.

"It demands realism and planning, it requires coordination of the state and local authorities of the second and first degree. Chiefly, however, it demands funds, it demands time and conscientiousness," he said.

Noting that there were many obstacles and that compensation to farmers could reach as much as one billion euros, Mitsotakis said the government had acted more quickly than any time previously in the history of the Greek State to distribute initial assistance to households, farmers and businesses, in addition to advances on compensation due to businesses and farmers.

He said the government's priority was to support Thessaly's resident to rebuild their lives as quickly as possible and restore infrastructure destroyed by the floods, including schools, which he promised would be fully restored with donations from Greek shipowners and "reopen in September better than they were before Storm Daniel."