More than 10,000 protesters gathered outside the Greek parliament yesterday, ahead of a vote on intensely unpopular new measures needed to secure continued payment of international rescue loans that have prevented bankruptcy.
On the second day of a general strike that has seen the country paralyzed, a communist party-backed union has said it will try to encircle parliament in a peaceful bid to prevent lawmakers from accessing the building for the final vote on spending cuts and tax hikes required by Greece’s international creditors. However, riot police moved to foil the attempt by blocking off the main avenues leading to parliament.
Several separate demonstrations were due to converge later yesterday on Syntagma Square in front of parliament, where more than 100,000 people gathered on Wednesday to protest the draft legislation. Though largely peaceful, Wednesday’s protest was marred by attacks on police and public property.
The austerity bill won initial approval in a first vote on Wednesday night, and deputies were next to vote on the details, which -included the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants and the suspension of collective labor contracts.
Creditors have demanded the measures before they give Greece more funds from a 110 billion euro (US$152.11 billion) package of bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF. Greece says it will run out of money in the middle of next month without the 8 billion euro installment.
The next installment has yet to be authorized and there is growing unease in the markets about whether a summit of eurozone leaders on Sunday in Brussels will yield a comprehensive solution to the continent’s debt crisis, that has also seen Ireland and Portugal bailed out as well as Greece.
The Greek government’s latest round of austerity measures are expected to pass though deputies from the governing Socialist party have expressed outrage, with several indicating they could vote against some of the more contentious articles in the bill. Dissent could further weaken Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s slim majority in parliament, where he holds 154 of the legislature’s 300 seats.
Unions seemed resigned to the law being passed, but warned the whole country virulently opposed it.
“It looks as if [lawmakers] may be set to vote in favor of the new austerity law,” said Ilias Iliopoulos, secretary-general of the Adedy civil servants’ union. “But they have no popular consent. Our European friends must know that our prime minister will go to the European summit naked, because the promises he will make have no backing in his country and cannot be enforced.”
Yesterday’s protests came a day after a massive demonstration that the liberal Eleftherotypia newspaper described as an “address by the people.”
However, the rally degenerated into violence, with several hundred black-clad demonstrators pelting riot police with chunks of marble, paint and gasoline bombs. Police responded with volleys of tear gas and stun grenades that reverberated across Athens’ main square.
The clashes continued sporadically into the night in the back streets near Syntagma Square, where protesters set fire to piles of garbage festering on the streets after a strike by municipal workers.
Authorities said 50 police and at least three protesters were injured in the clashes.
The second day of the general strike yesterday was disrupting public transport and left ships docked at port, schools and customs offices closed and state hospitals running on emergency staff. All public services were shut, while lawyers and prison guards were among those staying away from work.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
RSS