Greek lawmakers passed a deeply resented new austerity bill, caving in to the demands of international creditors in order to avoid a national bankruptcy as a second day of riots left one protester dead and more than 100 people wounded.
The austerity measures won 154-144 in the 300-member parliament, despite dissent from a prominent Socialist lawmaker who voted against a key article of the bill. The Thursday vote was expected to pave the way for a vital 8 billion euros (US$11 billion) payout from creditors within weeks so Greece can stay solvent.
Clouds of tear gas choked central Athens ahead of the vote as riot police intervened to separate rival demonstrators, who fought for several hours with firebombs and stones outside parliament.
A 53-year-old construction worker died of heart failure after attending a mass rally, while 74 protesters and 32 police officers were hospitalized with injuries, police and state hospital officials said. Several dozen more injured protesters received first aid from volunteer medics who set up a makeshift treatment site in Athens’ main Syntagma Square.
Police said they detained 79 people suspected of violent conduct.
After initial hours of calm, the rioting erupted when hundreds of masked anarchist youths attacked a peaceful rally of about 50,000 people outside parliament, pelting them with firebombs and jagged chunks of marble. The Communist-backed union members counter-attacked and chaos ensued as the two sides fought with sticks and rocks, before riot police fired volleys of tear gas to separate them.
Running battles ensued through the avenues and side streets of central Athens.
Unions kept the country’s services crippled on the second day of a general strike, in opposition to the new measures that include pay and staff cuts in the civil service, as well as pension cuts and tax increases for all Greeks.
Former Labor minister Louka Katseli voted against one article that scales back collective -bargaining rights for workers. Although she voted in favor of the overall bill, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled her from the party’s parliamentary group, whittling down his parliamentary majority to a bare three seats — down from 10 seats two years ago.
Passing the entire bill was “a matter of national responsibility for the critical negotiations that lay ahead in the next few days,” Papandreou said in a statement announcing Katseli’s expulsion.
Greece now heads into a series of tough negotiations in Brussels involving the 17 finance ministers of the eurozone and European leaders.
“That it was voted on is one thing. Its implementation is another. The people will tear it apart, they will dismiss it in practice,” retiree Kleanthis Kizilis said at the protest.
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