Greek farmers head for Athens protest

ATHENS (AFP): Hundreds of Greek farmers were heading to Athens on Tuesday to demand financial aid after the government consented to an orderly protest in the capital.

Convoys of dozens of tractors escorted by traffic police were enroute to the capital for the evening protest, TV footage showed.

Additional farmers were travelling in by coach from agricultural areas such as the island of Crete.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who last week met protest leaders and made numerous concessions, on Monday called on the farmers to cause “as little disruption as possible”.

“I fully understand why our farmers want to hold a symbolic demonstration in the centre of Athens, coordinating with what has happened in all other European capitals,” the conservative prime minister told Star TV.

But he stressed that the government had “nothing more to give”.

The farmers began protesting last month, joining a wider movement that has seen tractors deployed to block roads or slow traffic in France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, among other countries.

Part of the discontent in Greece is fuelled by anger at the slow pace of reconstruction after devastating floods in September in Thessaly, the centre of Greece’s agricultural production.

The farmers want import controls, lower fuel taxes, better prices for products and an easing of European Union environmental regulations.

The government has offered to lower energy bills for farmers over the next 10 years, as well as to cut VAT on fertilisers and animal feed from 13 percent to six percent.

Mitsotakis last week also promised to deliver financial aid by the end of the month to those affected by natural disasters.

Having paid farmers between 2,000 euros ($2,150) and 4,000 euros last year, the government has promised more aid worth between 5,000 euros and 10,000 euros this year.

But that has not appeased the farmers.

The agricultural federation said on Wednesday it was “not satisfied with the extra measures announced by the government”.