Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] All eyes on Nikaia, Larisa as farmers harden their stance

[01] All eyes on Nikaia, Larisa as farmers harden their stance

Representatives of farmer road blocks throughout Greece, from Evros down to Crete, were meeting there at noon to discuss how to coordinate their action from here on and further escalation to more hardline action. Notable for their absence are the representatives of the militant Tempi block, where farmers ended a 24-hour blockade of the national highway at noon and will leave it open for six hours, before resuming another full blockade for another 24 hours.

The farmers are still demanding that the government convene a cross-party committee, where parties will be represented at the highest level, in order to deal with their demands.

Farmers at the two road blocks in Fthiotida, on the Athens-Lamia stretch of the national highway, also opened the road to traffic on Sunday afternoon and allowed hundreds of trucks that had been trapped in the roads around Lamia to slowly head toward their destination, though the backlog is expected to take some time to clear. Tractors were also withdrawn at the Atalanti road block, at the 140th kilometre of the highway, in both directions but remained on the motorway at the 210th kilometre of the highway near Anthili, though they have been withdrawn from side roads, allowing traffic to get through slowly.

Similar action was taken by farmers in Messinia on Saturday, who closed roads for up to 12-hour stretches, and in other areas of the Peloponnese. The Tripoli-Corinth highway at the Nestani tolls remained "indefinitely closed" on Saturday, as was the Athens-Corinth national highway at the Isthmus tolls, while the old national roads were closed at Mylous in Lerni, Corinth and Laconia.

In the north, the Krystallopigi customs on the border with Albania and the Niki customs post on the border with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) were closed for 24 hours at noon on Saturday, as were the roads at Neapoli in Tsotyli, Argos in Orestiko and for shorter periods on other parts of the Western Macedonia road network.

Large gatherings of 700-plus tractors also carried out 24-hour blockades from noon on Saturday at Aiginio and the Alexiadi bridge in Pieria and for 12 hours at Servikia bridge in Giannitsa.

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