The farmers are taking to the streets on Monday

Dynamic actions are beginning on Monday February 7 by the farmers from Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace, according to the decision of the Coordinating Committee of their unions, which convened after the meeting with the leadership of the Agricultural ministry.

The form of the mobilization of farmers was not known, and their representatives refused to answer when they fielded a question from reporters. Even though they admitted that the ministry seems to understand their requests, they described their meeting as fruitless.

At the heart of their reactions are the reimbursements by ELGA, as they are asking that they be paid in their totality through an effective process of assessing damage. They are also requesting to push the issue of the Registration of Farmers, but also a decision for cheaper farming oil.

Agriculture minister Kostas Skandalidis called the reactions untimely, unfair and unreasonable, especially amidst the current economic climate.

He warned that he considers as unthinkable the repetition of last year’s “folklore scenes” where the farmers ended up in talks with the PM of Bulgaria in order to open the Greco-Bulgarian border, where they had set up blocks. According to Skandalidis, the protests are a citizen's right from birth and the government cannot be the gendarme of the farmers.

However, he added that he considers their requests for a raise of the returned VAT TO 15% unfair (when it has already been raised from 7% to 11% despite the crisis), the issuing of tax-free oil («it does not exist anywhere», although the establishment of “farming oil” is not excluded under certain conditions) and the contributions to ELGA (the state is already paying more than what ELGA is receiving from farmer contributions»).