Farmers to decide on protests
Farmers of northern and central Greece reacted angrily yesterday to their representatives’ failure to reach a deal with Agriculture Minister Giorgos Drys, blocking several vital roads and threatening to continue with their protests through the winter. The two sides disagreed over subsidies and compensation for crop damage. Farmers want 300 drachmas per kilo of cotton in subsidies and more than the 90 billion drachmas the government is offering in compensation for damaged crops. Farmers will be meeting at the offices of the PASEGES agricultural federation in Thessaloniki tonight to decide on whether to go ahead with further protests. Yesterday, they used tractors to close the Thessaloniki-Athens highway from 6.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. They also blocked a road near Serres, the Thessaloniki-Kavala highway and the Petritsi bridge near the Bulgarian border (which they closed for eight hours).
