Shortly after 11 this morning, the farmers who spent the night in Syntagma Square after yesterday's rally, put their tractors back in front. They take the way back, making appointments at the blocks, where they will decide how to continue their mobilizations. Some, more hard-line, put on the table the idea of keeping the tractors outside the Parliament until their demands are met, but it was decided not to change the plan and to leave in sections and coordinates, in the same way as they arrived in Athens.
At the blockades, the Greek farmers will decide whether to continue the road blockades, or whether there will be other forms of mobilization. Their message was sent in the presence of more than 8.000 farmers, beekeepers and breeders at the peaceful rally held yesterday at Syntagma. After all, the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had earlier made it clear that the government has exhausted the fiscal margins to give something extra, described yesterday's rally as a means of pressure that he will use towards Brussels.
The rally not only had... tractors, but also had pulse, banners and slogans for their professional survival, but also the importance of the primary sector for the whole society, such as "without us, what will you eat?", "cost reduction production means lower prices on the shelves' and 'no farmers, no food, no future', since the agricultural mobilizations are a pan-European phenomenon, as a reaction to the new CAP.
The President of SYRIZA, Stefanos Kasselakis, signed the Constitution. of the KKE Dimitris Koutsoubas, the president of Plefsis Eleftherias, Zoe Konstantopoulou, the president of the New Left Parliamentary Group, Alexis Haritsis, a group of PASOK MPs, as well as many more MPs.
Return and requests
In the return plan now, it is likely that the same plan that was implemented will be followed, in full consultation with the police in order to cause the least possible inconvenience to the Athenians: The convoy of more than 120 tractors from areas of Central Greece and Thessaly to leave in three groups, one from Evia with 9 agricultural machines and then the other two groups with 78 and 90 tractors respectively.
The farmers have at the core of their demands after the meeting they had with the prime minister (since they received satisfactory, as they describe, proposals for the rest, most notably the plan for electricity), tax-free agricultural oil. The government responded to this request with a refund of the EFF on agricultural oil, amounting to €83 million and a commitment that the advance payment of €40 million from the refund of the EFF will be made at the end of March. The farmers, however, were not satisfied with the EFFK and are demanding tax-free, an issue they describe as "immediate and imperative".
Distinctive at the rally was the presence of the Thessalian farmers, who are demanding a comprehensive plan for infrastructure and anti-flood work, after Daniel. It is noted that in the memorandum of the farmers with their requests, there was a separate annex concerning the Thessalians and the problems they face after the disaster, which remains to be discussed in a reasonable period of time.
Source: protothema.gr