Farmers’ Protests, Roadblocks Continue; Mitsotakis Calls for Dialogue

A bevy of demands include subsidized diesel fuel and electricity, even “guaranteed rates” for produced crops and stockbreeding products and even 100% compensation for losses.

The mobilizations come amid an ongoing furor related to fraudulent agriculture subsidies paid out by a now defunct agency, the “OPEKEPE scandal”, as well as an ongoing sheep and goat pox epidemic that has resulted in the culling of hundreds of thousands of stock animals.

Mitsotakis calls for dialogue

Meanwhile, speaking during meetings with local officials and members of his ruling New Democracy (ND) party on Saturday in the near-Athens township of Markopoulo, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on farmers to engage in dialogue with the government.

“The government is open to dialogue. Farmers should come together in an organized manner, with specific representation and specific demands, and we are here to do our best,” he said, adding that “protests should take into account society as a whole.”

He also maintained that roadways and other infrastructure must not be blocked.