Greek farmers clash with riot police

Source New York Times

Two people were injured Monday when Greek riot police clashed with hundreds of farmers from the southern island of Crete who sailed to the Greek mainland and tried to drive tractors and farm vehicles to the capital to push demands for financial aid. The clashes come at a time of growing social unrest in Greece, as the center-right government of Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis struggles to restore its credibility after student riots in December. Protests have spread across Europe–most recently in France and Britain–as the global economic crisis bites into jobs and incomes. In the clashes on Monday, the farmers, who sailed into the port of Piraeus, made a convoy of some 300 tractors, trucks and other farming vehicles. Some of the vehicles tried to ram a police van that was blocking the port gates. Live television broadcasts showed at least two people injured in the scuffle, including a female lawmaker who was knocked down by one of the tractors. Two protesters were arrested for pelting police officers with rocks, potatoes and tomatoes. Heavy farming vehicles are barred from the capital's motorways, and the authorities in Athens said they had advised the protesters to proceed on foot. "All we wanted was to drive our tractors to the Agriculture Ministry in a peaceful, symbolic protest," one farmer mounted on a red tractor festooned with two black flags told a private television broadcaster. He said the farmers would stay put until the authorities came to them. Thousands of farmers have been protesting across Greece since Jan. 20, blockading the country's main roads and starving the capital of food and medicine as they demand government aid and tax breaks following a harsh winter and a drop in commodity prices. Most of the blockades eased last week after the government promised a $645 million aid package and Bulgaria's truckers association vowed to take legal action against the Greek authorities for hampering trade. But the farmers from Crete rejected the package, saying it offers too little for their region. Other agricultural groups are keeping a crucial border crossing with Bulgaria closed, complaining that the government assistance plan provides no long-term solution to their declining income. Greek farmers' income has shrunk by almost 24 percent in the last decade, according to their national labor union.