IN SCENES reminiscent of the destruction that followed the police shooting of a youth in December 2008, violence flared in the Greek capital following a parliamentary vote on a new austerity package.
Ministries, banks and shops came under attack yesterday from scores of koukouloforoi– a Greek term for hooded violent protesters – in the second day of riots that have marred a 48-hour general strike called by the country's unions.
The fighting started shortly before noon as MPs finished a two-day debate on the so-called second memorandum – as the swingeing mid-term austerity plan is popularly known – that involves €28 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts over the next five years.
Chaos reigned into the evening, as rioters fought pitched battles with police who reacted with one of the most aggressive responses in years, according to observers.
As night fell, main opposition conservative party New Democracy condemned the citizen protection ministry for allowing police “resort to an inconsiderate use of tear gas which has transformed the city centre into a hell”.
Amnesty International said its representatives had witnessed police beating peaceful protesters on Syntagma Square.
“Police have a duty to stop the violence and arrest those responsible, but they must ensure the use of force is proportionate and directed only at violent demonstrators,” said John Dalhuisen, the organisation’s deputy director for Europe.
The violence in Athens has completely overshadowed tomorrow’s vote on an enabling law to implement the austerity and privatisation package.
For much of the day, Syntagma Square, the focal point of the peaceful daily anti-austerity protests since May 25th, was enveloped in a cloud of suffocating tear gas and red smoke emanating from flares.
In mid-afternoon, concerned at the escalating violence, security staff ordered the evacuation of the five-star King George Palace Hotel, located on the square.
The frantic scenes were in stark contrast to the relatively orderly debates under way inside the parliament, housed in a former royal palace overlooking Syntagma Square.
As the news of the parliamentary result – 155 in favour and 137 against – reached demonstrators, a brief silence descended on the square.
“This vote is a defeat for us peaceful demonstrators. Now all we can do is pray that the money we have will be enough for us to buy food,” said a 21-year-old protester Angeliki.
“Today was like a battle between animals. The police were far too extreme in their response and many of the rioters have clearly lost it,” she continued.
In anticipation of trouble at the protests, many demonstrators wore gas masks while others smeared their faces in a protective cream to guard against the effects of tear gas.
So intense was the use of tear gas in the city centre that it forced the majority of protesters – who were wearing no protective masks – off Syntagma Square down into Ermou Street, the main shopping mile of the capital, and down the maze of side streets off the square.
Others fled into the underground metro station at Syntagma. Shortly before 9pm, a Red Cross volunteer from a makeshift first-aid centre located inside the station said that it had treated up to 500 people, while 30 had been taken to hospital with injuries.
Ambulances were unable to reach the square because roads leading to the flashpoint had been sealed off by police. The injured had to be transferred to hospitals via the metro system.
Inside parliament MPs from Radical Left Coalition interrupted the debate to call on the citizen protection minister to end what they said was the “chemical war on Syntagma”.
Throughout the day many reports emerged of police obstructing the work of press photographers and cameramen on the square. By early evening, a police spokeswoman said that 30 police officers had been injured and that 29 people had been detained, nine of whom were subsequently arrested.