Riot police shielded Greece’s national parliament on Sunday as demonstrators protested against austerity measures on the eve of talks in Brussels on a 130-billion-euro bailout needed to avert bankruptcy.
Hopes for a deal at the meeting of euro zone finance ministers have risen after Athens last week detailed new budget cuts. But sceptics, led by Germany, are wary about Greece’s determination to shrink its debt mountain.
More than 1,000 protesters had assembled outside parliament by mid-afternoon. Demonstrations last Sunday degenerated into looting and torching of buildings in central Athens.
“The austerity measures are really hurting pensioners – we can’t just sit and take it,” said retired state electricity worker Costas Xenakis, 70, whose monthly pension will be hit again by new cuts approved by caretaker Prime Minister Lucas Papademos’ cabinet late on Saturday.
Banners such as one reading “Down with the memorandum of hunger” bore testimony to the anger many Greeks feel towards a political elite that allowed the country over the years to rack up a national debt worth 160 percent of national output while the super-rich took advantage of lax tax collection.
(source: Reuters)
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