site.btaGreek Police Uses Tear Gas Against Farmers As They Try to Block Thessaloniki Airport

Greek police have used tear gas against protesting farmers in Thessaloniki during an attempt to set up a blockade near Macedonia Airport in Greece’s second-largest city, the television channel Skai reported on Friday.

The clash between protesters and police took place in the area known as the “green traffic lights”, a colloquial name for a road junction that often becomes a site of protests or blockades because it provides the main access route to the airport.

More than 6,000 tractors are currently on Greece’s roads, as farmers continue their protests and blockades for a sixth consecutive day. Their strike actions are expected to intensify in the coming days, the channel added.

The online edition of the newspaper Kathimerini reported that blockades continue at the Evzoni border crossing (with the Republic of North Macedonia) and Promachonas (with Bulgaria). Passenger cars, buses, and trucks carrying perishable goods are being allowed through partially.

Local media also report that farmers from the Nevrokopi area have gathered at an intersection near Exochi (opposite Ilinden on the Bulgarian–Greek border). They will hold a meeting on Friday evening, and a decision is expected on how they will continue their protest actions.

Blockades continue on other major roads in the country as well, including on the Thessaloniki–Athens motorway.

The protests erupted because of delays in the payment of agricultural subsidies due to a corruption scandal in the Greek agricultural payments agency OPEKEPE, even though the government has begun partial payment of the subsidies.