Crete's farmers set sail for Athens.

(From Athens News Agency)

Farmers from Iraklio and Lasithi on Crete embarked on ferry boats bound for the port of Piraeus late on Sunday night, along with their tractors and pick-up trucks, determined to take their protest to the capital. The passenger ferries "Phaistos Pallas" and "Crete 1" set sail after a delay of roughly one and half hours from Iraklio, after the coast guard and local public prosecutor sought to determine whether it was legal to transport agricultural machinery and tractors on ordinary passenger ferries.

Amid government appeals that they leave their tractors behind, farmers on Crete had earlier disbanded their five-day road block at Linoperamata and Platani and arranged to meet at the island's port the same evening.

They plan to arrive in Athens on Monday morning for a protest demonstration outside the agricultural development and foods ministry, where they will also seek to have a meeting with the minister and present their demands.

From Athens, Deputy Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis appealed to Iraklio farmers to abandon their plans to bring their tractors to Athens, warning that it would result in traffic gridlock that would turn all of Attica against them.

"I have no right to say that someone does not have the right to make demands, but they must bear in mind, those that create these things, that they will cause a huge problem and bring the entire society of Attica prefecture against them. For this reason I am appealing that they come as individuals, as farmers, to protest and make demands but not with tractors, not cars, not agricultural vehicles," Markoyiannakis stressed.

In northeastern Serres at the opposite end of Greece, meanwhile, the tractor roadblock at the Promahonas border crossing with Bulgaria was still going strong as it entered its 14th day, ...