Farmers stage rallies in different parts of Peloponnese

Farmers objecting to a planned increase in taxation on their sector, and the revocation of benefits, held rallies across the Peloponnese on Thursday.

Protesters staged rallies in Sparta, Kalamata and Tripoli. In Sparta, farmers used their tractors to block the entrance to regional authority offices. They then drove through the town in a further protest.

Meanwhile, farmers from western Messenia converged in Kalamata, where they staged similar protests. In Tripoli, protesters held a smaller rally outside the local regional authority offices.

The head of the farmers’ cooperative association for Arcadia, Thanassis Tsiotinas, said that people whose income is dependent on farming, should be treated differently to others who have other jobs but claim subsidies for cultivation.