By Penelope Galliou

The government is betting on easing the “crisis” with the farmers with today’s mobilizations and the “landing” of tractors in the center of Athens, hoping that the motorized agricultural demonstration could be the epilogue of the mobilizations, giving the baton to the start of the cultivation period and sowing.

After all, the message that has been emphatically broadcast over the last few days and by the Prime Minister himself yesterday, is clear and rules out any further fiscal “recession”clarifying that the government cannot give anything more than what it already gave after the meeting of Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the farmers at Megaro Maximos last week.

“We don’t have anything more to give. And I think that the farmers also recognize this and know very well that the government has probably already exceeded the limits of their expectations, especially in the issue of electricity,” the prime minister emphasized during their interview with STAR and estimated that “it will be a mobilization which will have a character, I would say, of escalating the mobilizations and I believe that after that things will return to their rhythm. Besides, the sowing period also begins”.

The “paper” of the demonstrations

Of course, the government recognizes the farmers as well as any social group the right to demonstration and protest, but at the same time they focus on the parallel need not to disrupt the social and economic activity of the rest of the citizens who live and operate in Athens.

In this light, Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on the rural people participating in today’s demonstrations to do so in coordination with the competent police authorities, in order to avoid problems that would worsen the conditions in the capital. “After all, many social groups are protesting against the Constitution, why shouldn’t the farmers have the right to do it too? I believe that this will be done in coordination with the police and I ask the farmers who come down to be absolutely, they will I said, in an open channel of communication with the police, in order to create as little disturbance as possible,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

At the same time, the prime minister connected the farmers’ mobilizations with the processes at the EU level. for the negotiation of the common agricultural policy (CAP) considering that the pressure of the Greek farmers could be an additional bargaining chip of the same in Brussels.

“It is a means of pressure and mine. When I go to Brussels to negotiate – in the first phase it will be the Minister of Agriculture but have no doubt, the issue will reach the Council – I will say “you know, we in our country also had demonstrations and from these demonstrations especially in terms of bureaucracy and the speed of “greening”, to put it simply, the transition to a more environmentally friendly agriculture, there must be adjustments to the Common Agricultural Policy” stressed the Mr. Mitsotakis.

The dialogue continues

In any case, as has already been announced to the agricultural world, the fact that at the given moment there are no budgetary margins for further support measures, this does not mean that the dialogue between the government and farmers stops. Expectations for additional benefits may not be clearly cultivated at this stage, however, the agricultural issue has a wide range of issues for which the government is open and continues to dialogue with farmers.

“Agriculture, because it has too many individual aspects, such as the renegotiation of the CAP, such as the issue of illegal Greekisation, these are issues on which the Government is working in open communication with farmers and with continuous meetings held at the level of the Minister of Rural Development, but also of all the other co-competent Ministers, on a continuous basis” stated the government representative during the briefing of the political editors. He also recalled, like the prime minister, the government’s commitment that in 2025 the discussion begins on a fairer and with permanent features, a way to return the Special Oil Consumption Tax.

The “canvas” of the European elections

In any case, the government knows that the management of the agricultural issue is part of the wider “canvas” that composes all the burning issues that preoccupy Greek society and will play a leading role in the political debate ahead of the European elections. In this climate, during the presentation of the ND Organizational pie, the Prime Minister sent a message of party mobilization and vigilance, stressing that the citizens must be convinced that the ballot box for the European elections will not be “an indifferent ballot box, nor a protest ballot box”.

“On the 50th birthday of the ND, it is not understood that our large faction should go to the national ballot box casually. We will go coordinated, to achieve the best possible result. We will go to talk about Europe in Greece, but mainly about Greece in Europe,” he stressed the prime minister and added addressing the members of the ND “we will send the answer registered on June 9, giving the ND a great electoral victory, electing to the European Parliament people who have proven that they can worthily represent Greece in Europe”.