A first inkling of “common ground” between the government and protesting farmers appeared on Thursday during a meeting in Athens between Deputy PM Kostis Hatzidakis and Rural Development Minister Costas Tsiaras, on the one hand, and representatives of producers from Crete.
According to reports afterwards, the ministers reportedly conveyed a commitment that all of the farmers’ and stockbreeders’ requests will be examined and “that many of them will be addressed”.
After the escalation of farmers’ mobilizations across the country, the meeting was the first meeting that the government held, choosing the Cretan delegation as its first interlocutors. Other meetings with farmers from around the country are pending.
Before the start of the protests on Crete last week, a scheduled meeting between a delegation and Hatzidakis was canceled.
