Farmers’ protests and roadblocks continued on Saturday along major and secondary roadways in Greece’s provinces, with thousands of farm tractors lining several highways. Farmers’ unions and associations have pressed the government satisfy a number of demands, mainly involving compensation and lower production costs.
A bevy of demands include subsidized diesel fuel and electricity, even “guaranteed rates” for produced crops and stockbreeding products and even 100% compensation for losses.
The mobilizations come amid an ongoing furor related to fraudulent agriculture subsidies paid out by a now defunct agency, the “OPEKEPE scandal”, as well as an ongoing sheep and goat pox epidemic that has resulted in the culling of hundreds of thousands of stock animals.
Farmers’ representatives have recently hinted at blockades of airports and ports, with mobilizations now threatened in southern Greece and on Crete.
Mitsotakis calls for dialogue
Meanwhile, speaking during meetings with local officials and members of his ruling New Democracy (ND) party on Saturday in the near-Athens township of Markopoulo, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on farmers to engage in dialogue with the government.
“The government is open to dialogue. Farmers should come together in an organized manner, with specific representation and specific demands, and we are here to do our best,” he said, adding that “protests should take into account society as a whole.”
He also maintained that roadways and other infrastructure must not be blocked.
Source: tovima.com
