Galery

1

Farmers from the area of Ilia in the western Peloponnese are to launch protests against the changes in taxation of employees in the sector. Tomorrow they will gather at the junction near Marathia village on the Patras-Pyrgos road, along with their tractors.

Farmers will gather in the villages in the region in the morning and, all together, they will set off to the designated place. "During the demonstration we will discuss whether to intensify the protests and how to hold them," said Andreas Tsoukalas, chairman of the coordination committee of the farming organization in the Tragano village.

Asked whether he and his colleagues intended to block the traffic on the Patras - Pyrgos road he replied: "We do not intend to create problems to our fellow citizens who struggle every day to ensure their existence." In his words, the participants in tomorrow's protest will be particularly careful not to create problems to passing cars, in view of their safety.

Tsoukalas stressed that the main goal of Greek farmers is "all together to go to Athens by bus to protest there."

He explained that if the envisaged tax changes be voted on Friday and implemented, farmers would be destroyed. "We need to join forces and fight to allow farmers to survive in the harsh conditions, in which we are to live and work. I believe that we can achieve our goal when we unite and farmers will continue to be in their fields."

Meanwhile, the meeting of farmer representatives from all over Greece with Minister of Agriculture Evangelos Apostolou in Athens turned out to be unsuccessful. The chairman of the coordination committee of farmers said that the only solution for them would be to stand firmly behind their demands, pointedly adding that some of the ways would include "arriving in Athens with tractors and roadblocks."

He said that during the conversation with the Minister, the representatives of farmers received no concrete answers about the changes in taxation or in their social security.

According to him, representatives of the sector across the country will have continuous talks in the coming days on how to oppose the implementation of the new measures.

GRReporter points out that under the agreement signed with creditors, farmers and wage earners in the agricultural sector will have to pay retroactively the increase from 27.5% to 55% in their preliminary tax on the revenues obtained in 2014.

In parallel, it provides for a 75% increase in the preliminary income tax on the income obtained in 2015 and 100% on the income received in 2016 and afterwards.