Farmers begin blocking roads

Farmers in northern Greece began taking their tractors onto the Egnatia Highway yesterday in the first major road closure of the year by those working in the agriculture sector, although wider protests are expected to follow in the next few days as they step up their financial demands. Some 120 tractors were used to close the national road near the Strymonas bridge. The vehicles belong to farmers from Serres who say that the blockade will remain in place indefinitely. Drivers had to use a diversion which took them onto the old Thessaloniki-Kavala highway via Asprovalta. Yesterday’s protest is expected to be just a forerunner of what is to come, as more farmers from Serres are expected to descend on the Promachonas crossing on the border with Bulgaria from Monday. Farmers from Kastoria also set up intermittent blocks on the road leading to the Albanian border yesterday.