Cretan farmers march in Athens in midst of political meltdown

Cretan farmers came by boat for a second time this year to Athens to protest against government neglect of their sector at the time that the Ministry of Agriculture is dedicating some 500million Euro help package to lift problems caused by the global economic crisis in other agricultural areas of the country. This time the farmers did not bring their tractors with which they had clashed with riot police forces in February. Instead they marched to the parliament where they were faced by strong riot police forces.

The farmers' mobilisation comes in a particularly tense week in the country as last Monday the Parliament found itself in deadlock over the impeachment of the ex-Minister of the Aegean who is accused of sleaze. The impeachment would mean the immediate collapse of the right wing government which is ruling the country with one MP in majority, in this case the accused. At the same time the government's proposals to implement a series of anti-anarchist legislations on a 'national unity' consensus between political forces was rebuffed with the Socialists claiming that banning hoods in protest marches amounts to little more an intensification of repression. The Communist Party rep wearing a hood herself denounced from the Parliament's pontium the measures as "fascist" and proposed sarcastically to arrest judges that perform plastic surgery on their ears, and to make botox-injections illegal. The Coalition of Radical Left also denounced the proposed law saying that clothing preferences do not constitute an action and cannot be criminalised.In a rare fit of honesty, the Minister of Justice, an infamous right-wing thug in the 1980s, who proposed the anti-anarchist law, responded to the attacks by claiming that his government is more concerned with property that with civil rights...

The draconian police measures and the institution of new police motorised teams, have not been able to intimidate the massive social antagonistic movement in the country nor to inhibit political violence on part of radicals. Characteristically, on the morning of the 6th of May, the premises of the British 'Mediterranian College' were destroyed in the center of Athens by a group of radicals calling itself "Hoodies of Rapid Destruction" in response to Scotland Yard's involvement in designing the new repressive measures, and the death of Tomilson in London.