ATHENS — Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras on Friday expressed his complete support for farmers and vendors opposing changes to the regulations for open-air farmers' markets (laiki agora) proposed by the government, according to party sources.

"I read the articles of the bill and I believe that it has one sole target: to persecute the Greek farmer-producer[s], trying to push [them] out of an institution that was built around [them]," Tsipras said, during an online meeting with representatives of the farmer market producer-vendor federation and associations.

Tsipras said that he supports their protest action because he believes their demands are just and urged the government to withdraw the legislation.At the same time, he said that the proposed legislation targets both the producers but also consumers, both on the level of prices and of product quality.

"The institutions of the farmers' market resists the dominant trend and the dominant neoliberal attitude that wants everything to pass through middlemen. This government is a government that has shown its intentions toward small and medium-sized enterprizes and now toward farmers and small producers," Tsipras said.