Marinakis: Farmers to get larger advance to boost their liquidity

The fact that farmers were protesting in many other countries apart from Greece showed that there was no basis to the opposition theories that the government was to blame for inflation and high prices, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said on Wednesday in an interview with public broadcaster ERT. He also noted that many farmer protests were centred on demands relating to the disastrous flooding in September, which had mainly affected Thessaly.

For this group, in particular, he pointed out, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had on Tuesday announced that they would get an increase of up to 10,000 euros in the advance payment of compensation "as this was deemed a reasonable minimum damage". This would be paid earlier to boost their liquidity, while they would also receive additional support for the final reconstruction of houses or the relocation of those whose homes could not be restored. He also said the government was also examining support measures for diesel.

Marinakis noted that measures regarding electricity consumption by affected farmers have been in place since November, who were protected from having their electricity cut off, while he rejected proposals by main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance for a cap on electricity rates and abolition of the Special Consumption Tax as "uncosted". He pointed out that when SYRIZA-PA had been in power, it had actually increased taxes imposed on farmers.

He similarly attacked the other opposition parties, such as PASOK-Movement for Change and the Communist Party of Greece, saying they did not suggest costed counter-proposals but "make announcements that cost nothing to be pleasant".

Asked whether farmers were likely to block the roads, Marinakis said he didn't consider "that this is where we are now and we must not reach that point," adding that the demands of one professional group, however serious, should not lead to all citizens being punished and society's rights being violated.

On the protests within universities, Marinakis said the aim was to pass a flagship reform in tertiary education and ensure the end-of-semester exams take place. He insisted that protest sit-ins at universities were a criminal offence and must be treated as such.

"Offenders are offenders and they have no colour, they have no party and even if they belong somewhere, this does not mean they are exempt from control by the authorities, because all of these years they had immunity," he added.

Regarding the bill for same-sex marriages, he said the aim was for this to become law within the first 15 days of February.