ATHENS – Greek protesters clashed with police and set fire to cars and a hotel in central Athens yesterday as tens of thousands marched against austerity measures aimed at pulling the country out of a debt crisis.
Riot police responded with dozens of rounds of teargas in clashes that lasted more than an hour in the biggest and most violent march since three people died in protests in May. Police chased hooded youths who threw sticks and stones.
Hours earlier, parliament approved reforms and spending cuts that are a condition of a €110 billion EU-IMF bailout granted in May.
Striking public- and private-sector workers grounded flights, shut down schools and paralysed public transport and about 50,000 marched through the capital. Some shouted: “Revolt! Overturn government measures!”
As the march reached parliament, about 200 leftists attacked former conservative minister Kostis Hatzidakis with their fists, stones and sticks, shouting: “Thieves! Shame on you!” His face was covered in blood as he took shelter in a building, witnesses said. Police said nine people were arrested and another 11 temporarily detained, while three were injured.
Three cars on Syntagma Square were in flames, and there was a fire on the balcony of a luxury hotel after petrol bombs were thrown. Smoke and teargas covered the square and bystanders scrambled frantically to safety.
The 300-seat house voted into law measures that cut wages in state-owned bus and railway companies and weakened the power of collective bargaining to permit company-level deals.
“People have had enough. The anger is so great that nobody can stop it,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, general secretary at the civil servants union ADEDY, adding that the march was bigger than one in May, when 50,000 participated.
Ships stayed in port, hospitals worked with skeleton staffing levels and ministries shut down as civil servants and private sector workers stayed away.
Prime minister George Papandreou expelled a deputy from his parliamentary caucus for failing to back the government in the vote. But his Socialist party still commands a comfortable 156 votes ahead of more belt-tightening in the 2011 budget next week.
With a parliamentary majority and future bailout instalments at stake, the ruling Socialists are unlikely to change course although their popularity is waning in a deepening recession.
“I can’t sit on the sofa and watch my country go down. I’m here to shout and struggle.
“I’m a school teacher and many of my students’ parents are jobless,” said protester Anastasia Antonopoulou. – (Reuters)