One reason HellasFrappe believes that "foreign interests" are working to destabilize the Greek government (or rather to overthrow it) is the recent announcement from farmers in the region of Thessaly who said that they began protests against the government's new tax law on agricultural subsidies. On Sunday, farmers began parking their tractors in town squares across the Prefecture and believe it or not they are demanding a meeting with Agricultural Development Minister Athanasios Tsaftaris.
One really has to wonder. During PASOK's two year rule, we never saw a tractor on the streets of Greece and the government slashed their incomes by almost 30 percent! Also, the "green farming" idea proved to be nothing more than a scam and this was highly supported by eco-friendly George Papandreou. It therefore does not take a genius to figure out that something else is brewing here, and as always "interests" (foreign and political) are using farming unionists to fire up locals. Besides, we have already experienced such "chaos" (right before the fall of the conservative party in 2009).
They say they are protesting against being obligated to pay taxes... and if this is the case... then it is pitiful. Everyone should pay their share of taxes!
Their work is indeed difficult but no industry can be excused from paying taxes. Especially farmers who have benefited for over 30 years from EU subsidies! Since joining the EU, Greece has received billions and billions of non-repayable subsidies from the EU out of Structural and Agricultural Funds, and on account of these subsidies many Greek farmers decided to give up or to let others farm their land - mostly illegal immigrants- and would live off of the subsidies without doing anything!
Because of this mismanagement, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said in mid December 2012, that he wanted to end farm subsidies because many farmers aren’t growing anything at all but profits by literally stealing government money.
Farmers who manage to cultivate their produce with minimal support from the government, no government subsidies and a deep recession are actually doing a lot better. For example schemes like the "potato movement," which allows producers to sell directly to consumers in a mutually beneficial arrangement was very beneficial to farmers, as well as consumers, because it cut out the red tape, increased production and gave opportunities for work to many people.
In fact a study by the Pan-Hellenic Confederation of Agricultural Association shows more promising signs of life since the financial crisis hit and has revealed that the farming sector has actually grown by 32,000 jobs between 2008 and 2010 - mostly filled by Greek nationals.
But Greek farmers who insist on receiving subsidies claim otherwise. In fact they believe that there is a master plan to ruin the Greek agricultural sector (and, possibly, the Greek economy altogether), but anyone who believes that really needs to have his/her head examined. It’s really quite simple. Greece today has the lowest EU-ranking in terms of ease of doing business and the highest EU-ranking in terms of corruption. Turn those two rankings around and Greeks will live happily every thereafter.
One must remind them that the EU has already said that it was going to decrease its budget spending on agriculture. In fact the EU wants to shift spending from its western members that have enjoyed agricultural subsidies for more than 30 years to the newly accepted member states. It is crucial for them to receive aid because they need to grow and catch up to the already developed countries of the west.
Greek farmers also know that in 2008 there was a stall of negations when many developing countries like Brazil and others in Africa and Asia who confronted the US and the EU over agricultural subsidies because they were found illegal under WTO rules. They claim that it distorts competition by blocking fair trade and is postponing development of poorer nations that rely heavily on agricultural commodities as a source of income.
Posts
