45 days after the start of the farmers’ mobilizations, and suddenly, the third attempt at dialogue between the government and farmers has been “burned”. Yesterday, after a three-hour meeting, the coordinating committee of the blockade of Nikaia decided not to dialogue with the government, and proposed to the general assembly that followed an escalation of the struggle with several hours of road blockades and, in the background, a descent of the tractors in Athens, probably from next week.

The decision was approved by the assembly, which agreed that the dialogue the government wanted was a sham since it did not accept the conditions set by last Saturday’s nationwide meeting.

The other blockades belonging to the committee of blockades were also aligned with this decision, and they, too, are invited to decide on the ways of escalation in the coming hours. In this context, a nationwide meeting may be held immediately to determine the next steps. The farmers this time continue to call for dialogue, but based on the two committees they have elected, until there is a meeting, they will continue to escalate by hardening their stance.

Late last night, the Nikaia blockade decided to block the old Volos-Larisa highway from 3 pm to 6 pm.

How we arrived at the cancellation of the meeting

Saturday’s nationwide meeting identified two committees that were to meet the prime minister in succession. A 25-member committee of farmersand another 10-member committee made up of six farmers, three beekeepers, and a fisherman.

On Sunday evening, information reached the Nice headquarters that the government decided that there would be two 20-member committees. One would be representatives from the blockade committee and would have a meeting at 1 pm with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the other would consist of the blockades that had broken away from the Panhellenic Committee and Cretan farmers and ranchers, and their appointment with the prime minister was set for 3 pm.

After this development, there was a vertical refusal for the appointment by the Panhellenic Committee of the blockades, as the government did not accept the request for the two committees, and on the other hand, the Prime Minister was meeting farmers who were not even on the road of the mobilizations, like their Cretan colleagues. Last night’s proceedings only validated the statements of the farmers’ representatives.

What the government says about the non-execution of the appointment

Late last night, government sources were commenting on the failure to hold a meeting with members of the nationwide blockade committee, stating that :

“The government, from the very first moment, had said “Yes” to dialogue with the farmers, with the Prime Minister himself, on December 6 from Markopoulo, proposing a meeting if they have specific representation and specific demands.

Forty days later, it turned out that the intentions of some representatives of the blockades were different and were not in any way related to the satisfaction of fair demands of the farming world.

Because whoever believes in the justice of their demands and in some solution comes to the dialogue. The last invitation to a meeting from the government was yesterday afternoon and even for two appointments with the Prime Minister, as one group of blockade representatives did not want to come along with the second group of mobilisers.

From the very first moment, it became clear that dialogue requires rules of operation in order to be effective and not a sham. The provision for a maximum number of 20 representatives per meeting is an elementary condition if a meaningful discussion with the Prime Minister is to take place. Something that was communicated from the outset cannot be called into question after the fact.

However, the Ministry of Rural Development continued to exhaust every room for leniency to have a meaningful dialogue and accepted that the number of 20 people who had been requested and there is a possibility of them going to the Maximou Mansion, could be increased to 25.

Unfortunately, once again, any attempt at dialogue on the part of the Government is blown up through the sole fault of a small minority of representatives of the primary sector, who use the agricultural struggle as an alibi for personal or extra-institutional pursuits and who wish to meet with the Prime Minister and persons controlled by the authorities for illegal subsidies or misconduct.

From the very first moment, as a State, we have kept every promise, having received approval from the EU and completed all payments, reaching 3.8 billion euros, a record amount compared to the past, and following on from what many have been implemented in previous years, we are meeting the majority of requests. It should be recalled that the Prime Minister himself proposed the establishment of an inter-party committee of the Parliament for the formulation of a National Strategy for the primary sector.

The dialogue is being held to provide solutions for the many – the country’s approximately 600,000 farmers, livestock farmers, fishermen, and beekeepers – and not to serve the personal choices or the party agendas of the few.

The government, but above all society, has no more time for those who, with whatever motivation, want to continue their revolutionary gymnastics.

Everything that has been announced will be implemented for the benefit of farmers and livestock farmers and in the event of an escalation of mobilizations, the authorities alone will be responsible.”