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The tension between the farmers and the government is continuing to escalate following the refusal of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to meet with their representatives. The "red" trade unionist Evangelos Boutas from Thessaly, who has been one of the main leaders of farmers since the 1990s, said that they had received the following explanation in response to their request: "The prime minister's office informed us that Mr. Samaras could not receive us, because there had been a response to our economic demands already. They advised us to turn to the competent ministry for procedural matters."

Thus, the government has shown once again that it does not intend to succumb to the pressure of the farmers who decided on Sunday to block the traffic on Greek highways for several hours a day.

Police detachments who did not hesitate to use tear gas against the angry farmers did not allow them to fulfil their threat, mainly on the two main Egnatia and Athens-Thessaloniki highways.
 
Government sources criticized the radical left SYRIZA and the Communist Party as regards the agricultural protests and indirectly pointed at them as their initiators whose aim was to cause tension between the cabinet and the farmers.

At the same time, the disunity in their ranks has become increasingly apparent and the conflict between the farmers from Thessaly led by Evangelos Boutas and the participants in the so-called Initiative of farmers as to who is the "leader" of the protests is steadily escalating.

"Nikea is not indicative of the blockades throughout Greece. We invited them to attend our meetings three times, but they did not come. We took a step back and sent representatives to the meeting in Larissa on Sunday. There, however, they did not accept the presentation of our Pan-Hellenic initiative to establish a joint front. They did not include us in their plans and did not join us in a united group in the case that the Prime Minister would want to meet with farmers," said Christos Gontias from the Initiative.

Evangelos Boutas in turn confirmed the distancing of the farmers from Thessaly from the creation of an Initiative for the reorganization of the trade union issue among farmers by saying, "We have never been united. Why are they talking about disunity? We have never had anything to do with them."

He added that representatives of blockades had been invited to the general meeting on Sunday. "They wanted to join the committee that we formed. We did not refuse them but we decided to include in it one representative from each region. They, however, wanted to include them as an Initiative. We invited them as representatives of blockades and they wanted to participate as a separate group."

All admit that the blockade in the village of Nikea near Larissa is the biggest one because it involves farmers with 1,500 tractors. The political influence of its leaders is reaching many farmers in other regions. But their colleagues who support the initiative have arranged just as many tractors on the roads in the regions of Serres, Drama, Kavala, Evros, western Thessaloniki, Livadia, Fthiotida, Domokos, Kamena vourka, Kilkis, Achaia, Karditsa, Halkidiki, Orhomenos and others.

Despite the firm position of the government, the competent ministry has not interrupted the dialogue with the farmers. Today, the Deputy Minister of Rural Development met with representatives of the farmers near the Kouloura village in the Imathia region in northern Greece. Minister Athanasios Tsavtaris received peach producers, who insisted on immediately receiving the money for their products, which they had delivered to 14 companies last summer. Today, they were paid 12 million owed by four of the companies but it is unclear when they will receive the amounts due from the remaining companies.

Earlier today, farmers from Evros had held a symbolic blockade of the Kipi border crossing point on the Greek-Turkish border.