Farmers intensify protests, block highways
Following an announcement dismissing the government’s measures for their sector, farmers on Wednesday elected to intensify their protests and blockades of national highways.
Farmers of all specializations have been demanding compensation for the loss of their crops, livestock, equipment and machinery as a result of September’s Storm Daniel, which flooded hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in Central Greece.
Their demands include the lifting of the tax on agricultural diesel fuel, lower energy costs to €0.07 per Kilowatt Hour, subsidized livestock feed and farm provisions and a 100% reimbursement on lost livestock and crop products income. They are also demanding that the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy is revised.
Another concern that the farmers have expressed concerns the sale of products, like bread, which are advertised as made in Greece when they are, in fact, made with materials such as wheat that has been imported.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with representatives of the farmers last week and promised that the government would do its best to meet their demands. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis, however, clarified that further compensation and measures in addition to the ones already agreed to will not be possible.
Farmers from across northern and central Greece have since decided to continue blocking the national highway network on foot and with tractors, particularly the roads connecting Athens to Thessaloniki.
