- Farmers in Heraklion are taking to the roads again, this time with engines on.
- A protest and motorized march is planned for Tuesday evening in Alikarnassos.
- Tractors and farm vehicles will be moved to state and regional offices.
- The demands are long and detailed, shaped by exhaustion rather than impatience.
Heraklion is bracing for another evening of tractors, headlights, and grievances that refuse to stay rural.
Members of the United Federation of Agricultural and Livestock Associations of Heraklion (ΕΟΑΣ Ηρακλείου) have announced a protest gathering and motorized march for Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., starting at the Kazantzidis Bridge in Nea Alikarnassos (Γέφυρα Καζαντζίδη).
From there, the convoy will first proceed to the Decentralized Administration offices before continuing to the Region of Crete. The route is deliberate. The audience is institutional.
This is not a symbolic stroll. It is a reminder on wheels.
Tractors, pickups, and coordination
According to Manolis Karkavatsos, president of EOAS Heraklion, the mobilization includes tractors and other agricultural vehicles and is coordinated with the Panhellenic Committee of Road Blockades (Πανελλαδική Επιτροπή των Μπλόκων).
In other words, this is not a local outburst. It is part of a broader, synchronized movement that has already shown it knows how to apply pressure without burning public sympathy.
The federation represents small and medium-scale farmers and livestock breeders—the people most exposed when costs rise, payments stall, and policy shifts land without warning.
The demands, uncompressed
The federation’s announcement does not mince words. It lists demands that read less like a wishlist and more like a ledger of accumulated damage.
Among them:
- An end to state repression, authoritarian measures, and agricultural courts, with all protest-related cases dismissed by parliamentary decision.
- Immediate payment of all outstanding government debts to farmers.
- Guaranteed minimum prices that actually cover production costs and allow a livable income.
- Reduction of production costs, including tax-free fuel at the pump, capped agricultural electricity prices at €0.07/kWh, abolition of the Energy Exchange, subsidies for supplies, and removal of VAT.
- Compensation for lost income in 2025 for products whose prices have collapsed below production cost.
This is where the list stops being economic and starts being infrastructural.
Infrastructure that never arrives
Farmers are also demanding long-promised works that remain permanently “planned”:
- Irrigation projects
- Flood and fire protection
- Rural road networks
They are calling for a complete overhaul of ELGA (ΕΛΓΑ – Hellenic Agricultural Insurance Organization), the agricultural insurance body, to ensure 100% compensation for production and capital losses caused by natural disasters and disease, with sufficient state funding. No fine print. No exclusions. No creative accounting.
Subsidies, scandals, and who actually gets paid
The federation is blunt about subsidies: they want them tied to real production, not paperwork.
- Subsidies should go only to actual farmers and livestock breeders.
- Payments must be seizure-proof.
- Small fragmented plots under 20 stremmas should be exempt from ATAK–KAEK requirements.
- Immediate audits and release of blocked tax IDs.
- Payment of Measure 23 and proper functioning of monitoring systems.
Then comes the part no one likes to hear quietly.
During the previous mobilization, the situation did not remain symbolic for long. Farmers clashed violently with police, and access to Heraklion International Airport “Nikos Kazantzakis” was blocked for 19 consecutive hours.
Flights stalled. Travelers slept on floors. Residents listened to sirens, engines, shouting, and helicopters long after midnight.
For locals, that memory has not faded. It sits quietly behind every new announcement.
This is why Tuesday’s protest is being followed closely by those who live nearby—not out of hostility, but out of lived experience.
The demands, still unresolved
The list of demands remains long and uncompromising. Among them:
- An end to state repression and agricultural courts, with all protest-related cases dismissed by parliamentary decision.
- Immediate payment of all outstanding government debts to farmers.
- Guaranteed minimum prices covering production costs and allowing a livable income.
- Reduction of production costs, including tax-free fuel, capped agricultural electricity at €0.07/kWh, abolition of the Energy Exchange, subsidies for supplies, and removal of VAT.
- Compensation for lost income in 2025 for products priced below production cost.
These are not new demands. That is part of the problem.
The OPEKEPE scandal
Two issues are flagged as urgent.
First, livestock disease:
- Vaccination against sheep pox
- Full compensation for culled animals
- Income replacement
- Free herd reconstruction
- Compensation for bluetongue disease
Second, the OPEKEPE (ΟΠΕΚΕΠΕ – Payment and Control Agency for Community Aid) scandal: Farmers are demanding the return and redistribution of misappropriated funds to their rightful beneficiaries, the refusal to shoulder fines for others’ actions, and public accountability for political and criminal responsibility. They also oppose OPEKEPE’s transfer to the tax authority (ΑΑΔΕ) and instead call for institutional reform.
A warning, not a threat
The federation’s call to action leaves little room for interpretation:
“We call on all working farmers and livestock breeders, all those who feel the injustice and persecution of small and medium agricultural production on their skin, to be there on Tuesday, December 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Kazantzidis Bridge in Alikarnassos. The government will not get away with mockery and crumbs.”
This is pressure politics, not symbolism.
What happens next
For travelers, this may mean delays. For authorities, it means another test of restraint. For Nea Alikarnassos, it means bracing for engines, sirens, and the possibility that history might repeat itself.
Everyone remembers the 19 hours. Tomorrow evening will show whether lessons were learned — or merely postponed.
