Farmers continue their mobilizations with new forms of action, keeping tractors deployed on national roads and customs points. Today, Monday, they decided to proceed with a symbolic blockade of the Tempe tunnels for freight vehicles. Tractors are expected to move towards the Athens-Thessaloniki highway, while allowing the passage of passenger cars and buses. At the same time, farmers assure they will facilitate travelers’ movement during the Christmas three-day period, while continuing to raise toll barriers, allowing drivers free passage.
According to the decision of the Nikaia blockade, the tunnels will close at 11:30 and the blockade will last five hours. Tomorrow, Tuesday December 23, they are expected to proceed with a rearrangement of tractors at the Nikaia junction, implementing the decision of the nationwide blockade meeting in Serres, which provides for facilitating holidaymakers ahead of the festivities.
Mitsotakis: Open to dialogue with farmers, not to the irrational
The government, for its part, appears to satisfy or view positively most of the farmers’ demands, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis mentioned. “We are open to dialogue, but not to the irrational,” the Prime Minister noted, while repeating once again that “from the list of 27 farmers’ demands, 16 have already been satisfied or are being addressed positively, 4 are under processing or discussion to find a solution, and only 7 cannot be resolved either because they conflict with basic European rules and the operation of the CAP or because they are fiscally unfeasible.” “The insistence, therefore, on a sterile refusal of dialogue benefits no one and is a sign of a non-constructive stance,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis added.
The farmers, for their part, characterize the dialogue as pretextual and declare they are determined to continue their mobilizations, spending Christmas at the blockades. According to what the farmers declare, they are planning other actions, without however more details being known about the locations and form of their next moves.
