site.btaGreek Farmers Consider Continuing Protests after Talks with Prime Minister

Protesting Greek farmers, who are calling for additional state subsidies and tax relief, are expected to decide whether to continue their protests, the online edition of Kathimerini reported on Tuesday.

Farmers and livestock breeders, who have been protesting for nearly 50 days with varying intensity by blocking highways, roads, border crossings and other elements of the country’s transport infrastructure, held a meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday. After the meeting, which lasted more than four hours, Mitsotakis said that any solution must take into account Greece’s budgetary constraints.

Rizos Maroudas, head of the farmers' union from the agricultural city of Larissa, in central Greece, said that the farmers who attended the meeting in Athens on Monday were “not satisfied” with what the centre-right government had offered them. “Meetings of all blockades across the country are forthcoming, at which participants will be informed about everything discussed with the Prime Minister, and together we will decide whether to proceed with new traffic disruptions,” Maroudas said, as quoted by Kathimerini. 

The farmers and livestock breeders had suspended their road-blocking campaign last week at the government’s request, as a precondition for holding the meeting with Mitsotakis on Monday. Government officials stressed that although they had so far refrained from using police to clear blocked highways, this was likely to change following the talks with Mitsotakis.

The protesters are demanding a series of concessions, ranging from cheaper fuel and electricity to tax relief, arguing that they have been severely affected by the sharp rise in production costs. The Agriculture Ministry said that it has already offered all possible concessions.