Athens, Greece
Greek farmers said Tuesday they would block highways and converge on Athens in their tractors in a bid to win benefit pledges from the government.
Dozens of farmer federations decided on the protests at a meeting in the central city of Larissa, state news agency ANA said.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has indicated he could meet meet with protest leaders, as long as there is no disruption to the road network by the farm protests.
“We are open to dialogue and we call the farmers to talks,” deputy agriculture minister Dionysis Stamenitis told state TV ERT.
“We are continuing to convene with the European Union to secure the best possible results,” he said.
Some 300 tractors and dozens of trucks for transporting bees had gathered at an annual agricultural fair in Thessaloniki last week.
The protests are part of a wave of demonstrations across Europe by farmers demanding lower fuel taxes, better prices for products and an easing of EU environmental regulations.
In Greece, part of the movement is fuelled by anger at the slow pace of reconstruction after devastating floods last September in Thessaly, the centre of Greece’s agricultural production.
Mitsotakis has already extended the refund of a special consumption tax on oil and a discount on rural electricity from May to September.
It is among a package of measures whose cost Mitsotakis put at more than one billion euros ($1.1 billion).
© Agence France-Presse
