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Anastasia Balezdrova 

Again Greece is in the grip of taxi owners who protest against the liberalization of their profession. From one end to the other side of the mainland and on many islands taxi drivers block roads and public buildings and say they will not budge until the government accepts their demands. However, yesterday there were clashes between taxi owners in Crete and police and there was a lot of tear gas, today there are no blockades of ports and airports. 

Only on the island of Samos taxi owners invaded the departure area in the airport shouting different slogans. They also held and an empty coffin as a sign of protest, but did not intervene in any way with the functions of the airport. 

A large cruise ship came to Patra today and local taxi owners decided to offer their services free for the transportation of the hundreds of tourists who came on it and wanted to visit the city. The rest of their colleagues conducted a procession to the District Administration of Western Greece. 

In Tripoli a general meeting of taxi owners from Peloponnese was held, who also marched to the regional government of the peninsula, where they handed a sheet of paper with their requests. 

In Iraklio, Crete protesters "took over" the selling points of the archaeological complex of Knossos and let foreign visitors in for free. Another group of taxi owners waited in front of the district court both of their colleagues captured during yesterday's clashes with police who testified in front of the prosecutor. Today the airport in Iraklio functions without problems, but the occupation of the regional administration of Crete continues. 

In central Greece taxi owners from Lamia closed one lane of the highway Athens - Thessaloniki and said this was only a warning action. 

Taxi owners from the counties of Serres, Drama and Kavala also conducted five-minute on every hour symbolic blockades of the Amphipolis exit on Egnatia Odos. 

Their colleagues from Thessaloniki took over the building of the Regional Directorate "Transport" in the city for the whole day. Some more violent participants turned upside-down and caused serious damage to a taxi, which was subsequently ignited. The ones determined not to allow any of the transport directorate officers to enter the premises of the building and to operate eventually left at 01:00 in the afternoon and later on will decide about their protest actions tomorrow. 

Taxi drivers are even protesting in the distant province of Evros. Early in the morning taxi owners occupied the border crossing of Kipi on the border with Turkey and interrupted the work of customs officers at frequent intervals for up to ten minutes each time, and handed out flyers to passing cars. 

Protesters in Athens fulfilled their threat for a permanent presence in front of the Ministry of Transport and continue to request to meet with the Minister. They blocked Mesogion boulevard and each blockade had a duration of 15 minutes. One taxi driver wore a collage of pictures which depicted the transport minister as Hitler. Taxi owners fled the area around the establishment at 02:00 in the afternoon, saying that their further actions will be determined by the position of Transport Minister Yannis Ragousis in front of the Committee on Finance, which will meet to discuss the issue which continues for a third week. 

Shortly before the secretary of the union of taxi owners in Attica Costas Dimou met with the secretary of the ruling party Michalis Karhimakis and determined that the discussion between them was positive. The syndicator, who politically belongs to PASOK, said that the party's positive position must be expressed in parliament by the Minister. 

At least until now there is no new information released by the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and networks. Collaborators of Yannis Ragousis repeated the minister’s statement from Friday that it will present its proposals to the taxi owners at the end of the month, which will include proposals by various institutions. The government and the minister repeat at every opportunity that they want a dialogue with the striking taxi owners, but say that such dialogue cannot take place during a strike and "captivity" of Greek society and foreign tourists.