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Anastasia Balezdrova

By the end of the day farmers from the region of Serres will decide when to begin the blockade of the Bulgarian-Greek border at Promachonas, Yiannis Tourtouras, chairman of the local farmers union, told GRReporter.

He pointed out that the decision would be taken in the border area, where farmers would arrive with their tractors. They would set off together from the road junction near the village of Levkonas, where they would begin to gather at twelve o’clock. They would decide when to begin roadblocks at a meeting that would take place at Promachonas.

Tourtouras said that there would be blockades in all cases "if the government does not understand what our problems are and that it should solve them."

The decision to conduct dynamic protests from today until 20 January was taken at yesterday's meeting of farmers' unions, members of the Panhellenic Coordinating Committee of Farmers and Breeders in Thessaloniki. They are protesting against the changes in taxation of the sector, as well as against the pension reform, both of which are due to be submitted for voting in the Greek parliament.

The meeting was attended by over 500 farmers, breeders, beekeepers, producers that sell their products on the open-air markets and fishermen from all over Greece. They decided to block with tractors important junctions even today, with the ultimate goal "to totally stop the traffic on the Greek roads on 20 January."

It is expected that there will be blockades at the junction near Kerdilia on the Egnatia highway, in Kavala, the customs in Promachonas and Kipi (on the Greek-Turkish border in Evros), near Castro in the Viotia area, near the village of Nicaea in Thessaly and at the Tembi pass. At the same time, fishermen from Nea Michaniona near Thessaloniki and their colleagues from Volos will protest with their boats at the local ports on 20 January.

Farmers have also decided to organize a large-scale protest demonstration on 28 January when the international farm exhibition Agrotica will be opened in Thessaloniki and a national protest in Athens afterwards.