Angry farmers protesting delays in the payment of subsidies have swarmed onto an airport tarmac on the southern Greek island of Crete
ByELENA BECATOROS Associated Press
December 8, 2025, 8: 59 AM
ATHENS, Greece — Angry farmers protesting delays in the payment of subsidies swarmed onto the aircraft parking area of the international airport on the southern Greek island of Crete on Monday, managing to evade riot police who used tear gas and stun grenades to keep them back.
Images from local media showed dozens of farmers standing on a section of the tarmac at the Nikos Kazantzakis international airport in Heraklion, the main town in Crete, forcing the airport to suspend all flights.
Clashes also broke out near the airport of Crete’s second-largest city, Chania, with riot police using tear gas to disperse protesting farmers who pelted them with rocks and overturned a police patrol car, local media reported. Two people were reportedly injured in Chania.
The clashes in Crete are the latest escalation in farmer protests over delays in the payment of European Union-backed agricultural subsidies in the wake of a scandal which revealed fraudulent subsidy claims.
Farmers have deployed thousands of tractors and other agricultural vehicles at border crossings and key points along highways across the country, periodically stopping traffic and threatening to completely blockade roads, as well as ports and airports.
On Friday, riot police fired tear gas at protesting farmers attempting to block the mai