Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is ready to meet with farmers, government spokesman and Deputy Prime Minister Pavlos Marinakis said at a briefing of political editors on Thursday 8 February.
“A letter has been received from representatives of the blockade fighters, and the Prime Minister is ready to meet with them on Monday, but first we must know who he will meet with and who they will represent. – said Pavlos Marinakis. – We can’t have a meeting without knowing who the people we’ll be meeting with will be.”.
The government spokesman then repeated the words of Kyriakos Mitsotakis from Haidari. “The Prime Minister has been clear: open roads mean continued dialogue. We do not want to get to the point where citizens are unable to move freely. The government has a desire to listen to farmers. We have been clear about budgetary options, which have been exhausted at this level. But there are other serious requirements”he explained.
Farmers are making it clear that they will not back down until they get their way. Farmers say the government is heartless. They say they will not back down until their demands are met.
Speaking to MEGA, Panagiotis Katsikogiannis, a member of the coordination committee of the Kastros blockade in Boeotia, emphasized that the government’s statements are far from what they themselves are asking for. “The fight will not stop unless our demands are met. Nothing has changed in more than 30 years. Unfortunately, I see that the government is heartless and its statements are far from what we demand.” – he said.
He noted that the answers farmers are receiving from the government are vague and empty. “It is obvious that the government does not have a plan for the development of the primary sector, and this is, to put it mildly, sad, so we are asking for specific things. And the answers we receive are vague and erroneous, you understand that there is no common ground, so there can be no dialogue “, – added Katsikogiannis.
At the same time, a member of the blockade coordinating committee, Kastros Boeotia, conveys a message of fighting until their demands are met. “The fight will not stop unless all six of our demands are met, this is impossible. We are already escalating the situation,” he says. Finally Panagiotis Katsikogiannis addressed the demands of the farmers.
“The basic requirements are common to all farmers in Greece, and they are what make the countryside bleed. Of course, each region has its own individual problems. We have a problem with water, there is not enough of it. The other main problem is that our region filled with photovoltaic plants and wind turbines. Companies are taking our fields to install photovoltaic plants on them. This is done in an indirect way where they lead you to disaster, unfortunately not everyone can resist this horror.”he concluded.
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