The country without popular markets on Monday – Protest rally of producers in Athens
Attica is the only exception because the sellers of Athens are on strike as they support the government’s intention to turn the public markets into “open-air department stores”
Most of the country is left without popular markets today, except perhaps the Prefecture of Attica, as the General Confederation of Producers of Industrial Goods of Greece, an organizational umbrella which was joined by the eight largest federations and sellers of popular markets in the country – , Thessaly, Thrace, Attica, the Peloponnese and Crete – on the occasion of the conflict with the government that promotes the change of the legal framework for the public markets, have announced a 24-hour work and a rally in Athens.
The controversial bill that changes the character of the public markets was introduced for discussion in the Parliamentary Committees last Tuesday and was already voted in principle by the ND MPs, despite the categorical opposition to its provisions expressed by all the individuals, ie the unions. . and the producers’ federations and sellers from all over the country, as well as the representatives of the Region.
Why do producers react?
The reaction of the federations has been provoked by the very philosophy of the bill that changes the traditional character of the popular markets and abolishes the free access of the agents to them, in order to strengthen their commercial character.
The focus of the criticism is primarily on the provisions that provide for the conversion of producers’ licenses into professional sellers’ licenses, which favors the transformation of farmers’ producers into sales sellers by abandoning the activity of professional farmer, the position of a company for the positions . of producers – which as the derivatives point out, if e.g. in January, indirectly prevents seasonal producers from participating – the obligation for producers to enter the starting price of their products on the e-consumer platform by 8 in the morning, a provision that in the rest of the market exists only for supermarkets as well as the reference to regulate all those provisions that had previously provoked the reactions of the producers (eg regarding the entry of companies in the public markets on terms of tenders) to ministerial decisions that may put the companies back in the public window”.
No obstacles to the participation of producers in the popular
The main demands of the General Confederation of Producers of Professional Industrial Goods of Greek Popular Markets, which demands “even at the last minute to listen to the derivatives of the government”, are the establishment of legal entities responsible for the operation and supervision of public markets in all its regions. to continue unhindered production in the popular markets and not to advertise the positions of producers once a year, not to turn producers into traders and not to introduce the obligation to enter prices and quantities for sale on the e-consumer platform, nor the obligation to sell 50% of the declared quantity to the IACS as a condition for the re-granting of a license.
The exception of POSPLA which seeks to upgrade the status of sellers of faulty trade
An exception to the common pan-Hellenic front, derivatives and sellers of public markets, however, is the Panathinaikos Federation of Associations of Professional Sellers of popular markets (POSPLA), which represents the traders of the popular markets of the Prefecture of Attica, which welcomes the government popular markets and “turn them”, as they themselves acknowledge, into “open-air department stores”, thus supporting the conversion of producers’ licenses into professional ones.
However, the main reason why POSPLA welcomes the bill is that it upgrades the status of street vendors to the same level as that of traders with permanent establishment, giving them, among other things, the opportunity to participate in various NSRF, etc. The bottom line is that for tomorrow, POSPLA has announced, however, that the public markets of the Prefecture of Attica will function normally, calling for a strike.