Farmers’ blockades: Protests continue – Tempi tunnels to be closed

Farmers appear determined to remain on the roads, making it clear that they will spend Christmas at the blockades, with their tractors lined up on national highways and at customs checkpoints. Today, Monday (22/12), they decided to proceed with a symbolic blockade of the Tempi tunnels for freight trucks.

Tractors will move towards the Athens–Thessaloniki motorway, while allowing passenger cars and buses to pass. According to the decision taken by the Nikaia blockade, the tunnels will close at 11:30 and the blockade will last for five hours.

Farmers’ blockades: Christmas and New Year with open roads

At the same time, farmers assured that they will allow travelers to pass freely during the three-day Christmas period, while continuing to lift toll barriers so that drivers can pass without charge.

Tomorrow, Tuesday (23/12), tractors are expected to be repositioned at the Nikaia interchange, implementing the decision of the nationwide coordination meeting of farmers’ blockades held in Serres, which provides for facilitating holiday travel. Farmers from the Derveni and Chalkidona blockades are also lifting toll barriers at the Oreokastro toll station for several hours a day, allowing free passage for travelers.

Farmers from Evia announced their intention to lift the barriers at the Afidnes toll station as well, allowing vehicles to pass freely.

In Bralos, Atalanti, Kastro and Thebes, farmers say they will remain at the blockades throughout the holiday period. Farmers from Karditsa and Trikala, who have positioned their tractors along the Central Greece Motorway (E65), decided during an assembly to keep one lane open in each direction from Tuesday (23/12), in order to facilitate citizens’ travel during the Christmas holidays.

In Epirus, farmers, livestock breeders and beekeepers continue their mobilisations at four blockades set up in Arta, Louros (Preveza), Kalpaki (Ioannina) and Igoumenitsa.

In Arta, tractors remain lined up on the bridge of the Ionian Motorway in both directions of traffic. A similar situation is reported at the Louros blockade, at the exit of the town on the national road towards Preveza.

The agricultural and livestock association “Thyamis,” together with farmers, livestock breeders and beekeepers from the Igoumenitsa port blockade, distributed mandarins last night at the Tyria toll station to all passing vehicles. As they said, the action “was not a simple treat, but a thank-you for the understanding, patience and support shown by citizens for their struggle.”

Tonight, between 8:00 and 10:00 p.m., a two-hour blockade of the external port of Igoumenitsa for articulated trucks is expected.

At the Kalpaki blockade, farmers will also carry out a three-hour blockade tonight for trucks and articulated lorries traveling to and from the Greek–Albanian border at Kakavia. Farmers in Epirus state that they are determined to continue their mobilisations until all their demands are met and, given the season, are even decorating Christmas trees at the blockades.

The government, for its part, appears to view most of the farmers’ demands positively, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated. “We are open to dialogue, but not to the unreasonable,” the Prime Minister noted, reiterating once again that “out of the list of 27 demands submitted by the farmers, 16 have already been satisfied or are being addressed positively, four are under consideration or discussion in order to find solutions, and only seven cannot be resolved, either because they conflict with fundamental European rules and the operation of the CAP or because they are fiscally unfeasible.” “Persisting, therefore, in a sterile refusal of dialogue benefits no one and is indicative of a non-constructive stance,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis added.

Farmers, on the other hand, describe the dialogue as merely formal and say they are determined to continue their mobilisations, spending Christmas at the blockades. According to their statements, they are also planning further actions, although no additional details have yet been made public regarding the locations or form of their next moves.