Thousands of farmers seeking tax rebates and subsidies shut crossings into Bulgaria on Monday, in an eighth day of protests, and barred the highway between Athens and Greece's second city of Thessaloniki in the north and the Bulgarian border. Officials held talks with union leaders, but Agriculture Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis said the government would not increase its €500 million aid offer. “We don't intend to stop unless the government satisfies our demands,” the president of the Greek Federation of Farmers Unions, Giorgos Goniotakis, told Reuters. “We asked the government to supplement our income, tackle price cartels and fraud, but it hasn't taken any measures.”
