The despair of producers in Larissa after the destruction caused by yesterday’s bad weather, as well as the “indifference” of the government, is highlighted by the Secretary of the parliamentary group of PASOK-Movement for Change and MP, Evangelia Liakouli.
“Due to the absolute drought of the last few months, the farmers and livestock breeders of Larissa were forced yesterday to face the consequences of the sudden bad weather that struck our troubled region. Many areas of the municipality of Kileler, in Eleftherai, in Terpsithea, Vryssia Farsalon and elsewhere, were “dressed in white” from extensive hailstorms and for the people of the land, who saw their efforts destroyed again, despair is now evident,” the MP notes, adding that “what was not drowned last year due to Daniel and Elias wilted from the lack of water throughout July and August, and whatever survived this ordeal was hit by hail.”
“Despite the ‘game of thrones’ of natural disasters and erratic destructive weather phenomena, what remains ‘stable’, however, is the government’s indifference regarding all this: relentless babble, bravado and statements that always remain mere statements. A government that on camera –after the disasters or diseases, like the recent plague– keeps ‘promising’ fair compensation and substantial support for farmers and livestock breeders, and as soon as the cameras leave, it forgets their very existence. A government that in three years of skyrocketing production costs for animal feed, fertilizers, medicines, diesel, electricity, attempted to convince us with ‘crumbs’ and ‘aspirin’ that it ‘supports’ the primary sector, failing to convince anyone else apart from its self-righteous and self-referential self. A government that for more than five years in power still ‘deliberates’ without ever completing the amendment of the ELGA Regulation, in order to cover damages to agricultural production due to the effects of the Climate Crisis. A government that recently couldn’t even be bothered to have a representative or one of its MPs participate in the very serious debate about the huge issue of water scarcity in Thessaly,” she adds.
“But all of this certainly has the audacity to claim that perhaps… things will change in the third term of the New Democracy government and Mr. Mitsotakis… which is required for ‘them to do all that needs to be done’,” she continues to conclude: “Or perhaps –better yet– the multiple damaged farmers and livestock breeders of Thessaly should form the vanguard for the permanent replacement of this government that pretended to ‘listen’, but in the end remained with only the ‘friendly pats on the back’ and the easy observations that equate to nothing more than complete disregard for the people of the primary sector and their needs.”