“Today’s visit of Mr. Mitsotakis to Ministry of Rural Development and Foodin order to be informed by his new (fifth in a row) minister about the problems of the primary sector and to set (for the umpteenth time) the priorities of his government’s work in this particular sector, proves, once again, the ignorance, the inadequacy , the arrogance and callousness of this particular government, which is rightly characterized as the worst post-colonial government, for Greek farmers and breeders”, underlines in a statement the SYRIZA-PS.

“Why did Mr. Prime Minister, first of all, find nothing substantial to say about his permanent discredit, under surveillance (with the “bullet” of the European Commission), OKAY and the complete collapse, in terms of validity, timeliness and transparency, of the system of agricultural subsidies. Of course, he did not find anything to say about the incomprehensible fines that have been proposed by the European Commission to be imposed on our country, as a consequence of the mismanagement of the EU funds of the CAP, nor about the non-opening of the IACS declarations even though we have reached the third ten days of June and the possible consequences of this delay in subsidy payments, nor for the findings of the domestic and European audit mechanisms for the malfunctions in OPEKEPE”, he notes and continues:

“Instead, it was limited to a general and vague formulation, more like a wish list, for “the modernization of OPEKEPE” and that “the agricultural sector will continue to receive their subsidies” and specifically “only those who actually produce”. And of course, no mention was made of the need for an immediate amendment of the problematic, unworkable and without long-term orientation of our country’s National Strategic Plan, for the CAP 2023-2027, drawn up by the ND government in 2021, without substantial consultation with farmers and organizations them and which is responsible, to a large extent, for the backlog of agricultural subsidies, content with the positive modifications, recently made in the current CAP”.

“For the high cost of production, Mr. Mitsotakis he simply referred to the half-measures of his government for the return of the excise tax and the rural electricity GAIA, while he announced a six-month extension – until October – of the program for cheap rural electricity, ignoring the reasonable and costed proposals of the SYRIZA-PS, to impose a ceiling in rural electricity and agricultural supplies, as well as for the institutionalization of the farmer’s oil card. For ELGA, he limited himself to announcing that “its new Regulation will come to the Council of Ministers for approval before the end of the summer”, without again making any specific mention of how to ensure the strengthening of liquidity, solvency and credibility of ELGA in fulfilling its obligations for the valid, fair and timely payment of compensations to farmers and breeders”, the official opposition emphasizes, criticizing the prime minister that “he did not mention at all the complaints of the former president of ELGO-DIMITRA, Mr. Harutounian, in his resignation letter to him, for pressures to sign “direct work assignments, based on various pretexts”, neither to control food inflation and accuracy and control “scissors” from the field to the shelf, nor for combating the phenomenon of the Greekization of agricultural products and the unfair competition of imports of agricultural products from third countries, neither for the immediate response to the shortage of agricultural workers, nor for the immediate response to the decrease in agricultural production, and certainly not for the immediate implementation of a comprehensive proposal for the reconstruction of the primary sector of Thessaly”.

“After all, Mr. Mitsotakis discovered that “the problems we face with multinationals in the food sector, we seem to face in the field of pesticides as well”, proof of how far he is from the reality of agricultural production, while he formulated and the self-evident view of “investment in quality and added value” and the necessity to promote “cooperative schemes”, the introduction of “technology in production” and “the education and training of farmers”, but without mentioning what exactly what his government did, in this direction, in the last five years”, adds SYRIZA.

“The truth is that we were under no illusions regarding the “new” start of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, under its new political leadership, because we have simply known for 5 years the way the ND government and Mr. Mitsotakis are doing politics personally in the matters of the primary sector. We hoped, however, that the precipitation from 41% to 28%, possibly, would have made the rulers aware of what exactly has been happening for 5 years in the Greek region”, he notes and concludes:

“The SYRIZA-PS faithful to its values ​​and principles and with a sense of consistency and responsibility commits to fight hard, consciously and systematically, with proposals and initiatives, for the essential and immediate solution of the acute problems and the satisfaction of the fair demands of the farmers us, always next to them, always with them and always against the ignorance, the inadequacy, the arrogance and the indifference of the government of the ND for the agricultural world”.