ATHENS, Greece — 1000’s of indignant farmers from throughout Greece converged on central Athens on Friday, driving dozens of tractors to parliament, horns blaring, for an in a single day rally to protest what they are saying is the federal government’s failure to deal with issues threatening their skill to provide crops.
Police blocked off central streets within the Greek capital and accompanied the tractor motorcade by the middle of town because it made its technique to central Syntagma Sq. in entrance of the parliament constructing, the standard point of interest of protests in Greece.
Farmers have been protesting for months over excessive manufacturing prices, low costs for his or her merchandise and delays within the cost of European Union-backed subsidies.
The cost delays got here as authorities reviewed all requests following revelations of widespread fraud claims for EU farm subsidies. Protesters have argued that the delays amounted to collective punishment, leaving sincere farmers in debt and unable to plant their fields for subsequent season.
Livestock breeders, who’ve seen their flocks decimated by mass culls because of an outbreak of sheep and goat pox, have joined the protests, which started in November.
After weeks of tractor blockades alongside main highways and border crossings that triggered visitors and transportation chaos, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with farmer representatives final month. The federal government made a sequence of concessions, together with gas tax rebates and cheaper electrical energy charges.
However whereas the farmers dismantled their roadblocks, they are saying the federal government failed to deal with a lot of their issues.
“Our wrestle continues, as a result of our primary calls for weren’t happy,” Rizos Maroudas, head of a farmers’ union of the central Greek area of Larissa, advised Greek state tv ERT Friday, including that low-cost imports have been undermining Greek merchandise.
The federal government, he stated, had the monetary skill to resolve the farming group’s issues “nevertheless it doesn’t have the political will to do it.”
Early final month, farmers escalated their protests with a 48-hour blockade of main highways, toll stations and junctions over excessive manufacturing prices and the European Union’s commerce cope with South American nations. The EU-Mercosur settlement seeks to progressively take away duties on nearly all items traded between the 2 blocs.
Friday’s protesters have vowed to spend the evening on the rally, staying outdoors parliament till Saturday.
