ATHENS – New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras by phone on Thursday afternoon after visiting areas devastated by fires in Rafina and Mati.

In a statement, Mitsotakis said that “I called Mr. Tsipras and proposed that the government and main opposition party together ask from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to take on the cost of maintaining our country’s firefighting planes for the next five years or to contribute to acquiring any other means suggested by experts that will boost firefighters in the air. Mr. Tsipras was positive to my proposal and I hope that soon the SNF will find a way to move ahead with one more significant social contribution.”

Earlier on Thursday, Mitsotakis visited Mati, the area where 83 people were killed during this week’s fires.

On his second visit to the seaside town, the leader of main opposition party expressed his support to fire victims and was further briefed on the extent of the disaster and its causes.

Mitsotakis has been keeping a low profile in the last few days, avoiding sharp criticism of the government’s handling of the fires due to the three day of mourning called by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that ends Thursday.