A farmer smokes a cigarette as he stands in front of a tractor outside Parliament Friday. [Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo]
Protesting farmers from across Greece who converged on central Athens on Friday, driving dozens of tractors to parliament, horns blaring, are expected to leave the capital at noon, after parking their tractors on Syntagma Square overnight.
Friday’s rally was called to protest over rising production costs and tough competition from abroad, stateing that what the government had offered them so far was not enough to stay afloat.
Vasilissis Amalias Avenue will remain closed until the tractors leave.
On Friday, police blocked off central streets in the capital and accompanied the tractor motorcade through the center of the city as it created its way to central Syntagma Square in front of the parliament building, the traditional focal point of protests in the counattempt.
People lined up and applauded as tractors arrived in front of the parliament building. Tourists, with mobile phones in hand, sought to capture the moment, with some, defying police instructions, obtainting dangerously close to the large wheels of the tractors for the perfect selfie.
Farmers have been protesting for months over high production costs, low prices for their products and delays in the payment of European Union-backed subsidies.
The payment delays came as authorities reviewed all requests following revelations of widespread fraud claims for EU farm subsidies. Protesters have argued that the delays amounted to collective punishment, leaving honest farmers in debt and unable to plant their fields for next season.
Stavros Kozoutzis, a farmer from Komotini, in the north of the counattempt, stated: “Unfortunately, the summer cultivation period is about to launch, and we do not have the money to plant this year’s crops.”
Livestock breeders, who have seen their flocks decimated by mass culls due to an outbreak of sheep and goat pox, have joined the protests, which launched in November.
After weeks of tractor blockades along major highways and border crossings that cautilized traffic and transportation chaos, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with farmer representatives last month. The government created a series of concessions, including fuel tax rebates and cheaper electricity rates.
Farmers then finished their blockades after 55 days. The government states it has disbursed much of the overdue payments and announced cheaper fuel and cover for future output losses. However, farmers state the government failed to address many of their problems.
But the head of the farmers’ union in the central agricultural region of Larissa stated on Friday that many farmers had not yet received full compensation for last year’s crop and livestock losses, while guaranteed minimum prices for their products and investment in irrigation and infrastructure against future floods were core demands the government has not met.
“We are giving a battle for our survival. We left the blockades … but our fight continues as our main demands have not been satisfied,” Rizos Maroudas informed public broadcaster ERT, hours before farmers reached Athens.
The government, he stated, had the financial ability to resolve the farming community’s problems “but it doesn’t have the political will to do it.”
Early last month, farmers escalated their protests with a 48-hour blockade of major highways, toll stations and junctions over high production costs and the European Union’s trade deal with South American nations. The EU-Mercosur agreement seeks to progressively reshift duties on almost all goods traded between the two blocs.
The sector has also been hit by rolling outbreaks of sheep and goat pox with hundreds of thousands of animals being culled since 2024.
Footage from local television revealed veterinarians dressed in yellow uniforms spraying tractors with disinfectants before they reached the capital. [AP, Kathimerini, Reuters]
Leave a Reply