Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis called the minority of farmers “party insiders” who, he said, are torching another meeting with the prime minister, adding that “at the end of the day, the one who doesn’t come to meet seems to have no arguments.”

“We have exhausted perhaps to the nth degree the limits of endurance and tolerance to illegal acts such as road closures. It took 30 years for a party to come out and say that squatting in a university is an illegal act and the squatters should be brought to justice. The time has come to understand that cutting down Greece is an illegal act that should be taken up by the authorities. It is the duty of the authorities and the judiciary in the way they judge; we will not make suggestions. Now there are no excuses for applying the law without extremes. The law must be applied; without the police, this cannot be done,” Marinakis told SKAI.

As he stressed, “when the mobilizations began, there was a difficult situation with delayed payments, a reason that has now come with payments of 3.8 billion, the thorn of OPEKEPE, which has cost Greece 3.2 billion over the last 30 years. Now we have the cheapest agricultural electricity in Europe and no other country has a special scheme in the primary sector and rightly so. The government has accepted the request for the return of the VAT on the pump.”

At the same time, he explained that “we asked for a committee of 20 people and the logical thing to do is not to be in dialogue with the Prime Minister those who are controlled for in the OPEKEPE or those who overturn police cars.”

“Let this minority – surely the KKE is in the minority – understand that 2026 is not 1996 or 2006. Gone are the days of general assemblies; the people must move forward. The government will also be judged by this,” the government spokesman added.

As for the meeting to be held at 15:00 at the Maximou Mansion, he said that “it will be with many blockades, quite representative in relation to the regions. Possibly other representatives will be added.”