Dozens of enraged Greek farmers breached security cordons and stormed the aircraft parking area of Heraklion’s Nikos Kazantzakis International Airport on Monday, forcing authorities to suspend all flight operations on the island of Crete. Dramatic footage captured protesters standing defiantly on the tarmac while riot police deployed tear gas and stun grenades in a failed attempt to prevent the invasion.

Simultaneous clashes erupted near Chania, Crete’s second-largest city, where farmers overturned a police patrol car and hurled rocks at officers who responded with more tear gas. Local reports confirmed at least two injuries as tensions escalated rapidly across the island.

The airport invasions mark the most dramatic escalation yet in nationwide farmer protests triggered by severe delays in European Union agricultural subsidy payments. Authorities froze disbursements after uncovering a massive fraud scandal involving systematic false claims and money laundering, prompting the resignation of five senior officials and dozens of arrests coordinated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

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Farmers have mobilized thousands of tractors to blockade highways, border crossings with Bulgaria, Turkey and North Macedonia, and now airports, bringing freight traffic to a standstill and threatening complete paralysis of key transport arteries. Protesters denounce the payment freeze as collective punishment that leaves legitimate producers drowning in debt and unable to prepare fields for the next planting season, especially after a devastating goat-and-sheep-pox outbreak forced mass livestock culls.

Despite Public Order Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis declaring openness to dialogue, the government has warned it will not tolerate indefinite shutdowns of airports, ports or national highways. With memories still fresh of past farmer blockades that severed Greece in two for weeks, authorities now face mounting pressure to resolve the crisis before the protests spiral further out of control.

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