Finance
Greek farmers continue nationwide blockades to protest delayed funding
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking and Finance Review
Company
Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Greek farmers protest delayed EU aid with blockades, disrupting major transport routes. The government promises more aid amid a corruption scandal.
By Angeliki Koutantou and Renee Maltezou
ATHENS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Greek farmers continued their nationwide blockades on Tuesday, disrupting traffic along major motorways and intermittently closing border crossings to protest delays in farm aid payments.
Farmers have deployed thousands of tractors and trucks in dozens of blockades as they face a shortfall of more than 600 million euros ($698.6 million) in European Union aid and other payments.
The delays were prompted by investigations into a corruption scandal in which some farmers, aided by state employees, allegedly faked land ownership to qualify for payouts. Ongoing audits have slowed subsequent disbursements.
The delays to funding come just as farmers and stock breeders struggle with an outbreak of sheep pox that has led to hundreds of thousands of sheep and goats being culled.
The nationwide demonstration on Tuesday disrupted traffic at several junctures along two highways linking Athens to the northern city of Thessaloniki and the western port of Igoumenitsa to the Turkish border in the east, both key transport routes for trade directed to the Balkan countries.
"It's a matter of survival," Yiannis Koukoutsis, a farmer from the central agricultural region of Larissa, told public broadcaster ERT. "We're looking for moves of good faith from the government, including freezing tax debt."
The centre-right government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, under criticism over the scandal, has said it was open to discussions and urged farmers to terminate the blockades. It has acknowledged delays in payments and said farmers will be getting more aid this month before they finally receive a total of 3.7 billion euros this year.
But protests continue. In the north, farmers intermittently restricted traffic through the Promachonas and Kipi border crossings with Bulgaria and Turkey and said they aimed to block the port and airport in Thessaloniki this week.
On the island of Crete, three flights were cancelled and several others delayed after a group of farmers threw stones at police and stormed onto the runway at the Heraklion airport on Monday.
Airport operations resumed around 0800 GMT on Tuesday, Greek aviation officials told Reuters, after farmers left.
($1 = 0.8589 euros)
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Alexander Smith and Sharon Singleton)
Farm aid refers to financial assistance provided to farmers to support their agricultural activities, especially during times of economic hardship or natural disasters.
A blockade is an act of obstructing or sealing off a place to prevent goods or people from entering or leaving, often used as a form of protest.
A corruption scandal involves allegations of unethical or illegal actions by individuals in power, often leading to investigations and public outcry.
Sheep pox is a viral disease affecting sheep and goats, characterized by fever and skin lesions, which can lead to significant economic losses in livestock.
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