Demonstrations in Athens over protest square removal

Some 300 people demonstrated in Athens yesterday after authorities cleared a protest camp against the government’s economic policies from the city’s central Syntagma Square.

The protesters chanted slogans against City Mayor George Kaminis, the police and the government which is pursuing an unpopular austerity overhaul monitored by Greece’s international creditors, the European Union and the IMF.

“We are in Syntagma Square, and we are everywhere,” read the main banner carried by the demonstrators who marched on the city hall to the tune of drums and whistles, singing left-wing slogans.

“Bread, education, freedom,” some in the crowd chanted, while others derided the police. “Syntagma is staying put,” the protesters shouted.

Eight people were arrested on Sunday in the operation by police and city staff to clear the square, which had been occupied from late May in a protest by “indignant” Greeks mirroring a similar anti-government mobilisation in Spain. Those detained are “accused of violating laws regarding the protection of the environment”.

Many Greeks are angry that a year of wage and pension cuts and tax hikes on EU-IMF orders have failed to put the economy on a sound recovery footing, forcing Athens to accept another loan bailout last month after an original €110-billion lifeline last year.