site.btaGreek Farmers to Block Tempe Tunnel, Potesters Promise to Ease Traffic during Holidays

Protesting Greek farmers are continuing their actions at various locations across the country with new blockades, increasing pressure on the government on the eve of the holidays, Greek state television ERT reported. 

The broadcaster said that farmers from the blockade in Nikaia will move at 11:30 a.m. local time (same as Bulgarian time) on Monday to block the Tempe tunnel, which connects Thessaly and Central Macedonia. The closure will apply only to freight trucks and will last five hours. Passenger cars and buses will be allowed to pass.

At 1:00 p.m. local time (and Bulgarian time) today, a protest is scheduled in front of Greece’s Ministry of Rural Development and Food, organized by workers’ unions and federations.

According to a decision by agricultural organizations, on December 23 farmers from the Nikaia blockade are expected to rearrange their tractors on the roadway in order to facilitate travel during the three-day Christmas period.

At the Bulgarian-Greek Kulata-Promachonas border crossing, traffic is expected to flow freely on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day itself.

The Greek government once again announced that it is open to dialogue, which the farmers described as merely formal, and they stated they would continue their protest mobilizations. The protests erupted due to delays in the payment of agricultural subsidies as a result of a corruption scandal at Greece’s agricultural payments agency.