Tsipras tours flood- and fire-hit Crete, calls for linking farm subsidies to production

A two-day tour of storm-hit Crete

Alexis Tsipras, president of ELAS, began a two-day visit to Crete on Monday, 12 October, and continued it on Tuesday, 13 October. On the first day he drove along the Northern Road Axis of Crete (BOAK) near Karteros, where he met members of the road safety association 'SOS Traffic Crimes' and professional drivers. He then visited the Lasithi Plateau, where he saw crop damage caused by recent heavy rain, and producers described the size of their losses and the compensation they need to cover higher production costs. The first day ended in Gergeri, in the municipality of Gortyna, where he met residents, farmers and livestock breeders. According to the tour programme, the second day takes him to the south of Rethymno, including the burned areas of Melampes, a meeting with winegrowers and inspections of flood-hit villages at 16:30, with the tour expected to end in Anogeia.

Fires, floods and the 2022 compensation

The visit opened at Kria Vrysi, where firefighters Pantelis Diamantakis, aged 25, and Emmanouil Stratidakis, aged 58, lost their lives on duty during a large fire at the end of July. Tsipras said Crete had been hit repeatedly, first by summer fires and now by floods. He described olive groves and vineyards that had burned four years earlier, were restored and then burned again.

The tragic irony is that the compensation, as they told me themselves, covered 10% of the damage from the 2022 fires, arrived just last March, and a few months later the land burned again.

He called on the state to act on the producers' behalf.

The state must stand next to the producers, next to the people who produce.

Subsidies and the government

Tsipras tied the losses to how public aid is distributed. He argued that the economy cannot rest on tourism and real estate and that production and demographics are among the country's biggest challenges. He called the rising cost of living 'a heavier, invisible memorandum', saying living costs rise far faster than wages. He accused the current government of lacking the will, a plan and the resources for the people who need them. Il Vima reported that the visit is also a political test, since Crete is a stronghold of PASOK, led by Nikos Androulakis, and the tour aims to establish ELAS's role on the centre-left.

We are going nowhere in livestock farming or in agricultural production, unless we reconnect subsidies with production.

Damage counts and the ELGA timetable

Naftemporiki reported, based on information it obtained, that by 7 October about 200 livestock damage announcements had been filed with the ELGA Heraklion branch, with 15,000 to 16,000 sheep and goats reported missing. Many herders said they had not found dead animals to show inspectors, while others could not access their farms. For plant production, 38 announcements had been filed by the same date, with no individual damage statements yet submitted. Standing water hampered recording, and many plots lack title deeds or leases, leaving a large share outside declarations and insurance. The ELGA deadline for damage announcements is 19 October, and a clearer picture is expected after electronic registration between 22 and 27 October. The timetable may move if an extension is requested, as happened after storm Daniel in 2023.

Naftemporiki also linked the losses to the OPEKEPE scandal, suggesting the storm could provide cover for inflated livestock declarations or higher claims. By 7 October, 47 announcements and 14 damage declarations for plant and fixed capital had been recorded under state aid. Most of these do not fit existing programmes, so they will be referred to the Government Committee for State Aid.