Livestock farmers reached the Presidential Palace in Nicosia on Friday afternoon, ending an hours-long standoff with police over their demand for an immediate halt to animal culls at foot-and-mouth disease-infected units.
The farmers had gathered at the GSP Stadium from around 10:00am, intending to march to the palace. But the procession stalled for hours after police refused to let them bring 16 trucks to the protest site. The group first decided to stay put at the stadium, then changed course at around 1:00pm and set off once police agreed to allow three trucks through. They arrived in large numbers at around 1:40pm and are now waiting to hear whether a delegation will be allowed in for talks.
The delay triggered a tense standoff outside the GSP. The president of the organising group Voice of the Livestock Farmers, Neofytos Neofytou, told television reporters that police were doing what had been rumoured the day before. “They let us gather and now they are coming to break up the demonstration,” he said.
Speaking in heated terms, Neofytou said the farmers had come to protest peacefully only for police to turn up with shields. “They came fully armed for an attack, as if they had criminals in front of them,” he said, adding that the move had been ordered by the Justice Minister, apparently in coordination with the President. He claimed the trucks were merely a pretext for the state to shut the protest down.
The organisation’s vice-president, Christodoulos Christodoulou, turned his words on the authorities directly. “Come to our farms,” he said. “Pick up a weapon, helmet and gear and come to our farms.”
Police, for their part, said they fully understood the farmers’ concerns and respected their right to protest peacefully, while pointing to their own duty to safeguard public safety and keep the road network running. They said they had been in contact with the organisers since the previous day and that specific arrangements had been agreed, including permission to bring three pickup trucks and a number of passenger cars to the site. Police said they remained available to help the event pass off peacefully.
The protest, organised by Voice of the Livestock Farmers, centres on demands for an immediate end to culling at infected units, with demonstrators expressing strong dissatisfaction at the way the authorities have handled the crisis.
The outbreak has spread to around 120 livestock units across the island since it was first detected in February, with approximately 71,000 animals culled across multiple districts. Under EU rules, if even one animal in a unit tests positive the entire herd must be slaughtered — a policy Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou has said is non-negotiable under EU law.
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