Farmers across Greece are rising up because they see their incomes collapsing, they are outraged by the fraudulent farmers who plundered OPEKEPE (Greece's Paying Agency for EU Agricultural Funds) while they, as honest citizens, were burned, and they see that the government has simply deceived them once again. When, as was revealed, a farmer has to sell 16 kilograms of wheat to buy a 3-euro coffee, since it sells for 0.19 euros from primary production, it is a challenge to logic. Livestock breeders have been ruined, especially after thousands of sheep and goats were seen culled. And in the face of all this, the many farmers are confronted with the OPEKEPE scandal, where some fraudsters from Crete and Thessaly—and not only—unionists, or large-scale livestock and crop farmers, developed relationships with the governing New Democracy (ND) party faction, which resulted in the theft of European money.
Are there fraudulent farmers?
Clearly yes, obviously there are fraudulent farmers; those who have been caught stealing European subsidies should face immediate confiscation of assets. We are indifferent to the rule of law, when the justice system itself is rotten and manipulated. The farmer who is a fraudster—a thief, and there are many such people—does not need a fair trial; confiscation of assets and permanent deletion from the subsidy lists. Furthermore, first-degree relatives should immediately be placed in the same category and permanently removed from the subsidy lists; the punitive measures must be harsh and merciless. At the same time, if the ND was a serious party and not just one of useless people and fraudsters, the leadership should expel any MPs or ministers involved in the OPEKEPE scandal and they should not be included in the lists for the next elections; a corrupt MP cannot continue to play games.
Farmers are right and of course they will close roads
The majority of Greek farmers and livestock breeders are honest and fighting citizens. Farmers are now closing the roads. People may be inconvenienced, but closing the road, even the national highway, is not wrong, but a way to react. The trap for the farmers, however, is this: if they close the national highways for a long time, the current government will use other social groups against the farmers—a classic, old recipe. Also, once the farmers see a little money in their accounts, they will almost immediately forget the causes of their deadlock; they cannot sell their products at ridiculous prices; they will try to bribe them.
Solution under explosive pressure?
The ND government has clearly failed in the agricultural sector, without a doubt. However, even under pressure, a logically sound policy aiming at national agricultural production cannot be implemented. Greece can produce almost everything and does not need imports of cheap and low-quality agricultural products; it is a crime because there is simply no national agricultural policy plan. The strategy of the fraudsters in Brussels has failed, the common agricultural policy of the European Union has failed, and the Greek farmer is the victim. We have a nonexistent national agricultural policy, incompetent ministers of agricultural development, and farmers who have lost interest and, without vision, are simply waiting for every rotten OPEKEPE system to get crumbs for the many and a lot for a few fraudulent farmers.
The manipulable Supreme Court Prosecutor is unacceptable
The reaction—supposedly—of the independent Greek justice system is a disgrace. The Supreme Court Prosecutor received orders and rushed to intervene regarding what is happening in the farmers' protests. At the same time, the decision to designate the group of farmers who attacked the supposedly innocent riot police (MAT) units as a criminal organization is, to say the least, unacceptable. The MAT teams receive orders to break up the protests, and the farmers' reaction is reasonable. We consider self-justice to be part of the Greek concept of justice, as long as it does not lead to extremes. Today, the justice system is rotten, it has become a manipulated branch of the current government; the majority of society does not trust the judges; this is shameful for the Greek justice system. Judges are mere pawns, spineless individuals who simply receive orders; very few constitute a bright exception in the system of justice.
Conclusion
The government will first use the riot police and then use money to buy off the farmers, recycling the problem instead of solving it. Greece needs national production in the agricultural sector, in the primary sector, and it also needs to break with the rotten clique of fraudsters in Brussels. Greece first, not the Brussels-first tactic, which is an extremely dangerous approach followed by the declining Mitsotakis government. Terrible inequalities are being created in Greece, and at some point, the poor will enter the rich man's yard not to steal but to restore justice in the face of inequality. We are not far from chaos.
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