Over 50 farmers with their tractors got off of the ferries this morning to support their colleagues from Crete, who are blocked since yesterday on Pieria port. Yesterday over 2000 farmers from the Island with their tractors rioted in Pieria because they wanted to demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Agricultural Development. They were blocked by police forces and did not manage to realize their demonstration. When they tried to go through the police chain, the police spread them with tear gas and rubber bats. Five people were sent to the hospital, among which one parliament member from the oppositional socialist party PASOK and one policeman.

Yesterday, the farmers had a meeting with the vice-minister of agricultural development Mihalis Pavlopoulos, which ended without success. They did not receive any guarantees for receiving financial help. The farmers said that they will remain at the port of Pieria until the minister of agricultural development Sotiris Hadzigakis is back from Brussels, where he had the hard task to convince the European Commission that the 500 million Euros financial help is not a subsidy but a compensation for losses.

Due to the police blockade at the port of Pieria, yesterday all sailings were cancelled, which means that today many Greek islands will be cut off from the rest of the world. The Cretan farmers occupied the municipality building of Iraklio yesterday and today the protests are continuing. During the night, they freed the building but from 7:00 am today, they are again gathering there. The blockade at the border station Promahon-Kulata is continuing and will remain at least until tomorrow night.