Armoured Thessaly in the new era

Each person at the end of a year makes his own account and sets his goals for the next. For this political person it is an obligation, primarily to the citizen and then to himself. In 2024, with the mandate of the great majority of Thessalians, I took over the reins of the Region of Thessaly and was called upon to deal with the results of the biggest environmental disaster in the country since Metapolitization. I knew well from the first moment I received the order to settle in the District building, that this project would be the hardest of my life. But I also knew how to deal with this challenge. CORVERSE That is why the first objective I set for my partners was to restore the trust of citizens in the institution of the Region. So, and for this reason we immediately started working to set up an integrated mechanism for monitoring weather phenomena, which would have the potential to prevent the destruction and early warning of citizens. The result was the operation of the Centre for Civil Protection of the Region of Thessaly, the first Centre for Civil Protection in a Region of the country, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself. We’re now monitoring 25 weather stations. We put several station measures in too many parts of the rivers, so we associate the volume of rain with the station meters, we have built a model and we monitor what will happen. So we can intervene, act and warn. DEPENDENCE At the same time we carried out cleaning in many streams and many parts of the mounds we restored them. But mostly in the streams, because there were areas such as urban Volos that were drowned by poor maintenance of urban streams. Only from the three streams – Kraysdonas, Xerias, Anavros – we carried about 1 million tonnes of bearable materials. They were badly maintained for many years. What I would like to leave behind, when I finish my work in the Region of Thessaly, is the seal of resilience. That is to say, to be able to build not only flood infrastructure, but all the culture of resilience. This is about Civil Protection – which involves all this system that we have explained so long – and especially volunteering. On this we will work even more intensively in the new year, aiming to relieve the citizen. At the same time as the operation of the Civil Protection Centre, I changed the management model of the Region of Thessaly , defining General Managers, who did not exist in the past, knowing well that it is the only way that such a large organization can be run, and I immediately formed groups of partners, starting work. At first, the reconstruction plan of Thessaly, for which we worked endless nights with my associates, had to be prepared, while at the same time we had to deal with the next major crises that took place during the past year. We have dealt successfully with the plague – and indeed the model we have created to manage this crisis was asked, as a model of good practice by the EU. We are still facing the crisis of smallpox, while we gave our first tests in the management of fires, within the Civil Protection Center. The result of the anti-pyrotic period for the Region of Thessaly was from the 100,000 burned acres of 2023 to fall to 3,000 burned acres in 2024. To shield Thessaly – and at the same time to deal with the water shortage we complete the restorations and cleanups and, at the same time, we prepare the Master Plan flood flood, as this did not exist. By autumn we intervene in Pinios, in three pieces, from the coast to the mountains of Trikala. From there on in Karditsa is already becoming the Master Plan. Volos Municipality does its own, for which the study has not gone far. Our goal, which is absolutely possible, is to announce our own flood prevention projects by the end of 2026. These projects also include the mountainous hydronomy projects of the Ministry of the Environment. These were announced in August and will begin to be done no earlier than the autumn of 2025. They’ll be finished in a year, about 2026. We work closely with the government and press for the start of major projects, whose completion takes four years. These are the works to Enipea, Mouzaki, Gate, Neohorite and the canal that will connect Stratoni to Carla. These have a very large flood effect and play a role in dealing with water shortage. At the same time, in the next few weeks Entrepreneurship programs are coming out. We are betting on strengthening small and medium-sized entrepreneurship with 30m-euro programmes. With regard to Public Health from NSRF and Public Investment – as we recently announced with Mr.Seretis – we have made some EUR 40 million available to support infrastructure in hospitals, health centres and primary care. Our main priority is Primary Health Care and Health Centers, and soon in each city, we will announce development projects. Culture is also our main priority. With the Integrated Spatial Investments (HSEs), such as the Northern Sporades, we want to reform the islands. It is also the OHE of Agrafi and Geopark that changes the landscape into a Gate and Meteora. Large works of Culture and Tourism, such as the 1st Ancient Theatre of Larissa that will finally be completed. At the same time we carefully plan how the agri-food sector of Thessaly will be a pillar of strategic development of our tourism product. A blessed, in every respect, place should be opened outside the Greek border, but having previously established its identity. We know the work is titanium. But that is also our challenge. To achieve this, we are well aware that we cannot alone. Therefore we have sent an open call for cooperation to all citizens, all social groups, regardless of political and ideological views. We know the citizen will have to see and believe first. It should become part of the vision. To feel a companion. This is also the aim of the regional authority for 2025: to continue to write with the citizens the story that our grandchildren would like to tell.