Hundreds of livestock farmers from Heraklion, Lasithi and Rethymno blocked the highway of VOAK in north-western Crete to protest the illegal distribution of European Unions funds via the OPEKEPE national agency.
They sent the message that Cretan livestock farmers are being unfairly targeted with the developments in the OPEKEPE scandal.
They complained that since the scandal broke out, their payments have been halted and demanded that the state should respond to the necessity of their payments as well as to solve a series of problems that they face, “problems that threaten the primary sector,” as they stressed.
The farmers expressed their intention to remain indefinitely on the Northern Road Axis of Crete (VOAK), keeping both lane streams closed, awaiting answers and commitments to their demands from the Prime Minister himself, tomorrow at the International Fair of Thessaloniki.
The president of the Heraklion Livestock Association, Lefteris Triantafyllakos, apologized to the public for the trouble by the closure of VOAK.
Pictures via cretalive.gr
Tourists were seen to carry their luggage approximately one kilometer in order to reach the airport of Heraklio, state broadcaster ERT reported on Friday afternoon.
Local media reported that the road to the Heraklion airport will remain block until 7 p.m.
Strong police forces are also at the scene to regulate traffic and keep the protesters under control, as they earlier attempted to walk to the airport.
Recent investigation by the Greek authorities on the OPEKEPE scandal revealed that off the 6,354 checked tax numbers of illegal beneficiaries, 1,036 of them were located in the Region of Crete that topped the list in the scandal: the Cretan perpetrators illegally collected a total of 17.2 million euros.
