Farmers appear divided into two camps at this point, with all scenarios still open, including the cancellation of their scheduled meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the Maximos Mansion on Tuesday. This situation has emerged because the so-called “hardline blockades” disagree with their representation committees. Meanwhile, the coordinating body of Thessaly’s blockades is meeting in Platykampos, followed by an assembly at the blockades, including the Nikaia blockade which represents the hardest stance. The Maximos Mansion, as announced earlier during the regular briefing of political editors by Pavlos Marinakis, agreed to receive two separate delegations of 20 people each: one with farmers at 1:00 PM and another with representatives of livestock breeders, beekeepers, and fishermen, along with farmers from Crete and the “Green Lights” of Thessaloniki immediately after.
However, the “hardline” Nikaia blockade announces it will not attend the appointment at Maximos Mansion, demanding that 25-35 representatives of the agricultural sector be present in each delegation. At the same time, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis conveyed that “the prime minister does not operate under ultimatum terms,” while clarifying that those who don’t believe in solutions shouldn’t participate in dialogue.
Farmers: Government’s plans for meetings with farmers
“There will be two meetings because they didn’t want to be in the same meeting with some others. However, the government and much more the prime minister cannot operate under ultimatum terms. The goal is to meet with all representatives of the mobilizations, so there are two meetings where we are willing to have the prime minister present: the first with the first group of mobilization representatives as requested and the second with the rest that the first group doesn’t want to participate in the meeting,” Pavlos Marinakis emphasized earlier regarding the prime minister’s meeting with the agricultural sector when asked about who Kyriakos Mitsotakis will ultimately receive at Maximos Mansion.
“So there are two meetings. The desire is for it to happen tomorrow, as we have announced. We are waiting for the names of participants for obvious security reasons, which must be provided in advance by them,” the government spokesman added.
Although Maximos accepted the request for two separate meetings, farmers appear to be backing down, mainly from the “hardline” Nikaia blockade, as they disagree on the composition of committees and the number of representatives who will participate in the meeting.
Nikaia blockade: “We’re not going to the appointment”
Representatives of Thessaly farmers, Rizos Maroudas and Sokratis Aleiftiras, speaking to ERT, said they will not attend tomorrow’s appointment with the prime minister “if the conditions they set are not met,” while coming into confrontation with Dimitris Tsilias, who stated that representatives from Green Lights will normally go to Maximos Mansion.
“We were united by common problems but since December 12 positions have diverged. It’s too late now to play numbers games about whether we’ll go to the meeting with the Prime Minister or not,” Mr. Tsilias characteristically said.
“We don’t determine who the prime minister will see, but beyond that, for us the red line is the decisions of the Pan-Hellenic blockades and the tendency is that if they don’t accept the committees we have determined, namely 25 in one and 10 in the other, we will not attend tomorrow’s appointment,” Sokratis Aleiftiras emphasized on his part.
Addressing Dimitris Tsilias, he said: “Those who didn’t come to the Pan-Hellenic conference representing 60 blockades shouldn’t now say it’s not an institutionalized body,” with Mr. Tsilias responding that the Pan-Hellenic doesn’t have a Constitutional Charter.
