ATHENS – Greek police clashed with protesters yesterday as about 100,000 workers, pensioners and students marched to parliament in protest at austerity policies aimed at helping Greece cope with its huge debt crisis.
Riot police fired scores of rounds of tear-gas and flash bombs at protesters hurling petrol bombs, choking the main Syndagma square with smoke and sending crowds of striking protesters running for cover.
A 24-hour strike by public and private sector employees grounded flights, shut down schools and paralysed public transport. In the biggest march since December 2008 riots brought the country to a standstill for weeks, about 100,000 Greeks marched through the streets of Athens chanting “We are not paying” and “No sacrifice for plutocracy”.
In several streets across the city, police fired teargas to disperse demonstrators hurling stones and plastic bottles. Shops barricaded their windows and hotels in central Athens locked up.
Police said two policemen and five civilians were injured.
“We’ve reached our limits! We can’t make ends meet,” said Yannis Tsourounakis (60), who has three children and is unemployed. “Our future is a nightmare if we don’t overturn these policies.”
The socialist government cut salaries and pensions and raised taxes last year despite repeated strikes, in return for a €110 billion bailout by the EU and the IMF that saved Greece from bankruptcy.
Analysts say strikes are unlikely to make the government, which has a comfortable majority, change course. “The government has no room to change policies,” said pollster Costas Panagopoulos, “but most Greeks believe the burden is not equally shared and this is a problem.” – (Reuters)