Greek lawmakers approved drastic austerity cuts on Thursday needed to secure international rescue loans worth 110 billion euros (US$140 billion) and clashes briefly erupted in the streets outside parliament, forcing police to use tear gas.
The new clashes came a day after violent protests left three people dead after a bank was firebombed in Athens.
Greek lawmakers voted 172-121 to approve the austerity measures — worth about 30 billion euros (US$38.18 billion) through 2012 — that will slash pensions and civil servants’ pay and further hike consumer taxes.
The rescue loans are aimed at containing the debt crisis and keeping Greece’s troubles from spreading to other countries with vulnerable state finances such as Portugal and Spain. The money will come from the IMF and the 15 other governments whose countries use the euro.
Fears of Greek default have undermined the euro, and while the current package should keep Greece from immediate bankruptcy, its long-term prospects are unclear. The country’s growth prospects are weak, and the population’s willingness to accept cutbacks may wane, leading some economists to predict an eventual debt restructuring somewhere down the road.
Opposition parties lambasted the government for imposing measures that are too harsh for the population to bear.
“The dose of the medicine you are administering is in danger of killing the patient,” conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras said.
Clashes in Athens broke out at the end of a main protest that drew tens of thousands of people as police pushed back a few thousand demonstrators outside parliament.
The violence was quickly contained with riot police firing tear gas at the protesters, who had earlier pelted them with stones, oranges and bottles.
Several small fires burned in surrounding streets. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Demonstrators banging drums and shouting anti-government slogans through bullhorns, unfurled a giant black banner outside parliament earlier on Thursday. More than 30,000 demonstrators filled downtown streets, chanting “They declared war. Now fight back.”
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled three Socialist deputies who dissented in the vote, reducing the party’s number of seats to 157 in the 300-member parliament.
“We have done what was necessary, not what was easy,” Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said after the vote. “Without these measures, we’d be thrown into the deepest recession this country has ever known.”
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