Police clashed with protesters near the Greek Parliament yesterday as thousands demonstrated against a new wave of austerity cuts designed to keep the country’s sinking economy above water.
Security forces fired tear gas after being hit with stones by a small group of protesters who retreated, leaving behind a trail of vandalised garbage bins, bus shelters and stores in the Athens centre.
At least 14 people were injured according to reports, and police said they had detained 24 people for questioning.
One protester in his 30s was hospitalised with a serious head injury caused by truncheon strikes, a medical official said. The left-wing militant underwent an emergency operation at a hospital in the southwest suburb of Nikaia.
The incidents were limited compared to previous demonstrations against austerity in Greece which often turn brutally violent.
The turnout was also smaller than recent street protests, with around 20,000 people participating in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece’s second city, according to police.
The protests were coupled with a general strike, Greece’s second this year, which shut down state services, halted maritime and train traffic and disrupted flights.
Greece last year pledged to put its economy in order after taking a €110-billion loan from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to avert insolvency when its borrowing costs went through the roof.
But despite a huge effort in 2010 – when hundreds of thousands of Greeks saw their wages and pensions trimmed while many also lost their jobs – the country failed to meet its deficit reduction goals because the economy shrank faster than expected.
“Greece is well behind schedule in the process of budget consolidation in the first four months of the year. This is because revenues are well below target,” Commerzbank analyst Christoph Weil said in a note.
“Without additional measures, the deficit in 2011 could be some five-eight billion euros higher than planned,” Weil said.
The government has now rolled out a new programme to save some €26 billion over three years to help bring down Greece’s enormous debt.
It also plans to sell a first batch of state assets worth €15 billion including stakes in several public corporations.
Many Greeks see this strategy as pointless.
“They want to suppress social rights acquired in past decades and take us back to the Middle Ages to save banks and bankers,” thundered protester Vangelis Papadoyiannis, a 46-year-old IT employee.
“In my company there were 100 layoffs just in January, our salaries were cut by 15 per cent and there’s more to come,” he said.
“We said a year ago that the government’s measures were unfair and we had foreseen that they would have no effect,” said the head of Greece’s top union GSEE, Yiannis Panagopoulos.
“Today, sadly, we are justified,” he said in a statement.
Athens’ overall debt has exploded to €340 billion, leading to mounting speculation – even from Greek officials – that it will need alternative options to keep up with repayments when the EU-IMF loan runs out in 2013.
Experts from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank are currently in Athens for a scheduled audit of finances and reforms to determine if Greece merits a critical new 12-billion-euro slice of funding from last year’s bailout package.
Senior EU and Greek officials have denied that any debt restructuring is on the agenda, although eurozone officials have begun to admit that Greece is likely to need more aid in some form.