"The demands of the farming world are just demands because, this time, what is at stake is not less profit." main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said.
He noted that high prices were crushing every household, including farmers, and that the government was responsible for allowing the energy crisis to have multiple impact, so that Greece currently had the highest wholesale price of power in all of Europe.
"The demand that there be an immediate return of the special consumption tax on farming diesel for as long as the crisis lasts, the demand for targeted subsidies to offset the horrific increases with the adjustment clause on farming bills, the demand for subsidies for livestock feed and farming supplies so that farmers and livestock breeders can break even are absolutely fair demands," he added.
Tsipras said the excuse that this would cause fiscal problems was "laughable" and that it was the government's choice to not support struggling society.
"You cannot spend 5 billion euros and possibly more in direct assignments, cut the 13th pension and give 1.5 billion for the privatisation of supplementary pensions, seven billion in armaments and at the same time say you haven't the fiscal space to support society," he said.
He also accused the government of "hiding" the farmers' protests, noting the poor coverage by the media, and urged the government to talk to farmers.
In a meeting with the farmers earlier, Tsipras strongly criticised the fact that a significant proportion of farmers was out in protest "but no one has heard that these mobilisations are taking place" and speaking of an "unprecedented exclusion of the farming world's voice from the sphere of the mass media."