Tension boiled over today outside Heraklion’s Nikos Kazantzakis Airport, where Cretan farmers and livestock breeders attempted to block the main entrance during yet another day of nationwide mobilizations.
The protest convoy — a loud, unapologetic parade of tractors rolling out from Pankritio Stadium — never made it to the terminal. Police had already sealed off every access route, turning the airport into something between a fortress and a puzzle with no correct answer.
What followed was exactly the kind of scene that makes winter in Crete far more dramatic than summer.
As protesters pushed toward the entrance, clashes erupted.
Police fired tear gas and stun grenades.
Farmers responded with stones and shouting.
Yes, stones. At the airport.
Let us begin with the obvious: Heraklion Airport is made of concrete, asphalt, and creative swearing.
There is not a stone, not a pebble, not even a decorative landscaping rock for ambiance. Unless someone arrived with a tote bag full of geological material, the “stone throwing” sits comfortably in the realm of imagination.
The Protest Itself Was Very Real
Farmers gathered at the Pankritio Stadium and moved toward Heraklion Airport in a massive motorized convoy. Police had already sealed off every access point — Senetaki Avenue, Ikarou Avenue, side roads, anything larger than a chicken coop.
When the crowd insisted on approaching the airport, the situation escalated. There were clashes. There was pushing. There were flares, smoke, and those famous “chemicals” that Greek police love throwing around like confetti at a wedding.
But stones? Thrown from where — the sky? Heraklion Airport does not naturally produce minerals.
Traffic Chaos from Heraklion to… Everywhere
VOAK turned into a parking lot. Nea Alikarnassos, Katsambas, Poros, even the city centre — all blocked.
Visitors trying to catch a flight ended up doing the Cretan version of pilgrimage: walking along police lines, dragging suitcases past roadblocks, and wondering at what point their holiday turned into a survival exercise. Traffic bans were issued from Kallithea to Kastelli, and from Karteros to Episkopi. It was the kind of day when Google Maps simply gave up and said “Good luck.”
Chania Airport Had the Same Script, Different Cast
Outside Ioannis Daskalogiannis Airport, farmers tried to push through a police blockade. Police responded with chemicals, smoke, and the full special-forces choreography that Greece seems to have on retainer for every agricultural protest since forever.
Once again, the narrative included “stone throwing,” though the airport’s exterior — much like Heraklion’s — offers about as many natural stones as a dentist’s office.
Meanwhile, in Karditsa…
At the office of the Minister of Rural Development, Kostas Tsiaras, farmers arrived symbolically with a few tractors, only to find the road blocked by riot police.
Their question was simple: “Are these the open doors the government keeps promising us?”Door, gate, barrier — everything was closed, except frustration.
The Big Picture
Across Greece, at least twenty agricultural blockades remain active. Thousands of tractors line national roads. Farmers are exhausted, angry, and out of patience. New assemblies today will decide the future of the mobilizations.
But Back to the Stones
The most entertaining part of this entire situation remains the same: The media saw stones at an airport that has none. Heraklion Airport bathrooms have other flying objects — the less said, the better — but stones? Not even one. So, unless someone hauled a sack of rocks from their village as part of their protest kit, the only thing truly flying today was exaggeration.
