In Nikaia, farmers from most of the protest blockades across Greece are meeting in order to decide on their next moves, following the public invitation by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for a meeting with them at 5 p.m. on Monday.

The atmosphere that has taken shape points toward the cancellation of the meeting proposed by the prime minister for tomorrow afternoon at the Maximos Mansion. The farmers’ union representatives are inclined to draw up a list of their demands and send it to the prime minister, expecting his response before any meeting takes place.

Representatives of the farmers who spoke to journalists before the start of the meeting adopted a hard-line stance, with the vice president of the Larissa federation, Sokratis Aleiftiras, stressing that “we are determined, since there are still no answers from the government, that once the meeting concludes we will send them our demands and wait for clear answers.”

“We will go to dialogue if and only if the conditions exist to find common ground, with the prime minister giving answers to the demands; otherwise, we consider it a government communications show. The government says that tango takes two—so does a meeting. Mr. Mitsotakis acted arbitrarily and set the appointment on his own,” he continued, concluding: “The prime minister can intervene at any time to create a basis for dialogue to begin, but he must ask himself whether he truly seeks solutions.”

On the same wavelength was Giannis Koukoutsis, also from the Larissa federation, who said: “We cannot go into a token dialogue; we have no time limits. I remind you that we have previously spent up to 40 days on the road, and I hope it will not be necessary again.” He also clarified that “Cretans will be present at the meeting, but they are not the ones who held talks with the government in recent days.”

As protothema.gr wrote this morning, the discussion that takes place will show whether there is a willingness for understanding and dialogue with the government or whether the union representatives will persist in a hard line.

If the logic of dialogue prevails, even with “red lines,” the demands of the blockades will be codified and sent to the government this afternoon, with a three-day window for responses.

During this period, there will also be an intense round of behind-the-scenes consultations to see whether a top-level meeting can take place. The prime minister’s aides, however, are not “staking their hand in the fire” that the meeting will occur, though they stress that the prime minister cannot do anything more than declare his absolute availability.