The farmers are escalating their mobilizations shortly before the meeting that the delegation will have next Tuesday with the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The farmers are expected today, Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to set up new roadblocks in Derveni and Nea Moudania, while at 2:00 p.m. the farmers of Agrinio in collaboration with the farmers of Achaia will open the tolls of the Rio – Antirrio bridge.

Yesterday, the farmers with their tractors descended on the central squares of the cities while they also proceeded to block roads. Specifically, in the central square of Karditsa, they threw milk, wheat and hay on the street and returned to the blocks in the area.

The advance payment of the social security tax was “locked” earlier

The government has “locked in” on its part the advance payment of the Special Consumption Tax for oil, which is abolished for 2024 and concerns approximately 300,000 farmers, to be given to farmers earlier.

At the same time, the government is considering special care for the farmers of Thessaly, who are also facing the most important problems due to the bad weather Daniel. According to information, the government is studying measures related to energy, specifically electricity.

For its part, the government considers that there is consensus on two key agricultural issues. One concerns the common agricultural policy, the negotiation and what the country can gain especially in the issue of fallow and the other concerns the issue of illegal Greekizations, especially for milk. This is an issue that the government often puts on the table, often referring to the controls that have been intensified especially since the beginning of the year.

What are the farmers asking for?

At the same time, the farmers are preparing for the meeting they will have with the prime minister next week. During their meeting yesterday in Sindos, Thessaloniki, it was decided that a 15-member committee consisting of 6 farmers from Macedonia, 6 from Thessaly, 1 from Central Greece and 1 from the Peloponnese will appear before Kyriakos Mitsotakis in order to discuss the problems that concern them.

Already in their letter to the prime minister they have made known their demands as they were decided at the Panhellenic meeting on Tuesday, in Nice.

In more detail they state:

“Mr. Prime Minister, on Tuesday, February 6, 2024, a pan-Hellenic meeting of all the country’s blocs was held in Nice-Larissa, in which the requests we have to the Government were discussed and jointly decided upon.

REQUESTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL BLOCKS OF THE COUNTRY

• Reduction of production costs with measures such as:
-Establishment of rural tax-free oil
-Ceiling of 7 cents/Kwh in the agricultural stream
– Subsidy of means, supplies and animal feed and abolition of VAT.

• That the New CAP not be implemented and renegotiated.

•Replenishment of lost income in crops that have a loss of production that is not covered by ELGA as well as in plant and animal products that were sold below production costs. Compensation from ELGA for all damages and diseases at 100% of the actual damage and not the insured value.

• To take measures and carry out checks by the Government to stop the “Hellenization” of plant, animal & beekeeping products.

• Prices that cover production costs so that we have income for our livelihood and cultivation needs.

• Infrastructure projects for the anti-flood shielding of the Country.

APPENDIX ON THE DISASTERS IN THESSALIA

• We consider it a separate and imperative issue to be notified of a schedule for the drainage of the nearby flooded villages and fields. Timeline of the construction of the tunnel, necessary for the anti-flood shielding of the wider area, firstly for possible Daniel-type disasters and secondly for health reasons.

• We ask that the flooded lands as well as the estates that will not be cultivated until they become productive be compensated with amounts that will cover the basic living needs of the producers. Specifically for Thessaly and B. Fthiotida.

• An advance payment of 50% for the fixed equipment must be paid by the state aid immediately and paid off immediately after the inspection. Final compensations must be made at 100% of the value of the fixed capital destroyed. In addition, the emergency aid of €6,600 should be immediately granted to the beneficiaries who were not given a rent allowance to those who were forced to leave their homes and rent another residence. At the same time, first aid should be given to those who did not receive it. The farmer needs a liquidity boost to meet basic living needs.

•Final compensation prices for all crops hit by the weather that will cover at least the actual cost of cultivation (ELGA).

•Suspension of the application of the CAP in derogation of the rules of irrigation for the years in which the flooded estates are not cultivated, as well as for those that are impossible to cultivate or irrigate.

•Immediate payment of linked aid for liquidity reasons

• We demand immediate restoration by the GOEB, Municipalities, Region of the road network, irrigation network (TOEB), electric network (DEDDIE) and with state responsibility to carry out a study and implementation of anti-flood protection and shielding projects.

We require the income of the farmers to be replenished until their animals, their stables are rehabilitated and they have a subsistence income.