Farmers and breeders in Greece escalated their protests today, Friday, by blocking with their tractors not only the bypass roads in the south section of the Athens-Thessaloniki highway, but also closed the High Bridge of Evia from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. practically cutting off the island from mainland Greece.
The Bralos block closed byroads from 2 pm to 5 pm and so did the blocks of in Nikaia, Kastro and Thebes.
At noon on Friday, the farmers of Thessaly blocked a bypass road leading to and from Larissa for three hours with tractors and combine harvesters. The tractors disrupted traffic also on the old National Road of Larissa-Volos, something that mobilized the police, in order to arrange the smooth traffic of vehicles, diverting it from different passages.
On Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 December, the farmers decided to open the tolls on several highways and let vehicles pass through without charge. Each block has still to determine the hours of the opened tools, however, the final decision still lies on the police as farmers have no authority whatsoever over the tolls operation.
On Monday, December 22, the three-hour closure of bypasses will be repeated, while then central blocks will be opened for three days with two lanes of traffic.
Having escalate their mobilization on Friday has caused kilometer-long queues of vehicles given the fact that a number of Greeks already leaving the cities for their villages for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Kilometer-long queues were also formed in Promachonas, northern Greece, as farmers proceeded to blockade the border station for international transport trucks at noon. However the spot opened again at 5 p.m.
Protesting farmers and breeders insist on refusing to come to dialogue with the government, with the latter to have leaked its position that does not leave much to hope, though.
“From the list of 27 farmers’ requests, 16 have already been met or are being treated positively, 4 are being processed or discussed in order 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 financially unfeasible” the government reportedly let the protesters know.
“We’ll be on the roads on Christmas and New Year, and even Easter, if necessary,” some protester told media.
*thumbnail: Blockade at the Evia High Bridge short after the protest started at 7 p,m, on December 19.
Where is the police? The country can not simply give free money to these men.