xGREECE: Anti-austerity protesters vent their frustration on police baricade in Athens

Record ID: 338954

  • Title: xGREECE: Anti-austerity protesters vent their frustration on police baricade in Athens
  • Date: 16th June 2011
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (JUNE 15, 2011) (REUTERS) TOP VIEW OF PROTESTERS IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT TOP VIEW OF PROTESTERS UNDER BANNER PROTESTERS WITH BANNER READING Poverty is the biggest aggression/ POLICE TOP VIEW OF PROTEST TOP VIEW OF POLICE IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT (INSIDE COMPOUND) TOP VIEW BANNER AND POLICE IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT PROTESTERS SHOUTING 'Thieves Thieves' IN F
  • Embargoed: 1st July 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece, Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Economy,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAZUKYY4ROCWLTOKXNA9NTHGZC
  • Story Text: Protesters began to gather at Syntagma Square, in front of Athens' parliament, early on Wednesday morning (June 15) ahead of a general strike and a planned cordonning off of parliament to stop a debate on further austerity measures.
    Heavy police reinforcements have been brought in to secure the parliament.
    Large metal barricades have been erected in front of the entrance to the Greek parliament.
    Up to 1500 police have been mobilised with many brought in from outside the regions.
    Shouting 'Thieves! Thieves' protesters banged on the metal barricades early in the morning and tried to dismantle them.
    There were police vans lining the front entrance of the parliament as well as rarely seen water canons.
    There were minor scuffles between protesters and the security forces when police tried to hold one of the protesters standing against the metal barricade.
    Tens of thousands of grass-roots activists and unionists vowed to converge on Athens' central Syntagma square on the assembly's front steps on Wednesday as Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's PASOK party discusses the measures and opens talk on them in committee.
    The new deal envisions 6.5 billion euros worth of tax hikes and spending cuts this year, almost doubling measures already agreed with bailout lenders that have pushed the jobless rate to a record high 16.2 percent and deepened a recession.
    The government has appealed for national consensus on the laws, on which the EU and IMF have conditioned the release of another 12 billion euros in aid next month that Athens needs to pay off maturing debt.
    Papandreou must push through a new five-year campaign of tax hikes, spending cuts and selloffs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default.
    He not only faces daily protests and resistance from a conservative opposition that has surpassed his Socialist party in opinion polls, but backbenchers in his own parliamentary grouping are also threatening to reject the plan.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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