Thousands join rally in Athens as farmers step up protest

Thousands of farmers from across Greece descended on Athens’ Syntagma Squar central square on Tuesday, parking their tractors before parliament in their biggest protest yet over rising costs and livelihoods destroyed by extreme weather.

Police estimate at least 8,000 farmers with 130 tractors joined the protest, which echoes grievances in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy, where farmers have staged similar demonstrations.

In addition to dealing with high energy and production costs, Greek farmers say they have been hurt by climate change-driven weather, where unpredictable flooding, as well as extreme heat and wildfires are making crop growing ever more hazardous.

Leading members of main opposition SYRIZA, including its leader Stefanos Kasselakis and MPs Sokratis Famellos and Pavlos Polakis, attended the protest. A group of 15 socialist PASOK MPs are also in attendance.

In statements at the rally, Kasselakis said: “Farmers are struggling to survive. Consumers are struggling to survive. There is a cartel in the middle, intermediaries, and oligopolies. The state should intervene immediately. No more of this mockery. The tax on agricultural fuel should be permanently abolished. There should be a cap on agricultural electricity. There should be at least a regulation of debts so these people do not lose their land. Simple things should be done immediately.”

Other trade unions joined the protests under the slogan “Workers and farmers, united in one fist.”

Farmers’ unions have been in negotiations with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative government for weeks, demanding more compensation, but say the measures announced so far don’t go far enough to meet their concerns.

“This is the answer to the government,” said 49-year-old farmer Dimitris Matsiotas who joined the rally in Athens.

“Livestock farming died today,” read a banner on one tractor with a black coffin attached to its front. The farmers drove through the streets of the capital, honking their horns to cheers and waves from passersby.

“The time has come for all of us to finally wake up,” said Thanasis Symeonidis, another farmer at the rally. “Because our problems will reach their doorstep too.”

Earlier, at the last toll booths on the national highway some 30 km outside the capital, farmers waved Greek flags and cheered each other on as they passed through.

“No farmers, no food, no future,” a banner read.

The farmers said they drove to Athens to try to pressure the government, which has already offered discounts on power bills and a one-year extension of a tax rebate for agricultural diesel to the end of 2024.

‘Catastrophic for farmers’

On Monday night, farmers lined up their tractors and pickups along highways as they gathered at a meeting point in central Greece where they spent the night before heading to Athens.

“There are many problems, most of all the fuel and the energy costs,” said one of the protesting farmers, Christos, in the central Greek town of Kastro.

“Last year was catastrophic for farmers, we did not produce grapes, we did not produce olive oil, we produced a bit of cotton but it was bought for nothing.”

The government reiterated on Monday that it is willing to discuss a more permanent tax rebate scheme in the future, but it had no fiscal room for any further concessions this year. Greece has been recovering from a decade-long financial crisis.

“We have nothing more to give,” Mitsotakis said during an interview with Greek Star TV on Monday evening.

“I think farmers acknowledge this and know very well that the government has probably exceeded even their expectations, especially on the power bills issue.”

He said the rally was expected to be largely symbolic, but farmers appeared determined to push for more concessions.

“We believe something will come of this. Otherwise we’ll have to harden our stance,” said Vergos Vergou, a protester in Athens. [Kathimerini/Reuters]