Irate farmers make their presence felt
Thousands of farmers from throughout Greece drove more than 200 tractors to Athens on Tuesday, intensifying weeks of protests against increasing costs and international competition.
Flying banners with slogans like “Without us, you don’t eat” and “Livestock farming died today,” farmers drove their tractors through the capital’s streets, honking their horns and ending up outside Parliament. It was the most organized and biggest mobilization by the sector in years.
Other trade unions also joined the protests under the slogan “Workers and farmers, united in one fist.”
Police estimated that about 6,000 people had gathered at Syntagma shortly before the start of the protest rally, which began outside the University of Athens building on Panepistimiou Street and made its way to Parliament.
Farmers have spent weeks mounting occasional blockades along highways and in rural communities, with demands similar to those heard at farmer protests around Europe.
Farmers in central Greece are still struggling from last year’s catastrophic floods.
Farmers’ unions have been in negotiations with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government for weeks, but no agreement was reached as the measures announced didn’t go far enough to meet their demands.
The government has voiced sympathy for the farmers, but budget restrictions prevent it from implementing all of their demands, including significant reductions in electricity costs.
“The problems are too many, but mainly the cost of production and the new CAP,” said Nikos Pavlanasios, president of Panhellenic Union of Young Farmers (PENA), referring to the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. He has his unit in Farsala, in a region where Storm Daniel changed everything and led many farmers to a complete dead end.
But beyond the individual problems, it is the new CAP which has fueled the deepest resentment.
“Agriculture cannot exist with so many restrictions. Do you see what is happening in other states? It is not just our problem,” he stressed.
The suspension for a year of the set-aside measure (4% of the area of each farm) for environmental reasons, decided by the European Union, shows that the message of European mobilization has been heard loud and clear.
The revision of the new CAP that has just been implemented will be formally tabled on February 26 at the EU MED-9 meeting of the nine southern European countries. On the same day, the issue of simplifying the CAP will be discussed at the EU Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers.
Never before has a revision of the CAP been discussed in the year of its implementation.
“Farmers are under pressure too, like all social and professional groups. And they too have the right to a decent income like all of us. They are not some provincials who can live on a pittance,” said Dimitris Panagiotopoulos, an agricultural history professor at the Agricultural University of Athens in comments to Kathimerini.
