15,000 mob streets of Athens
Greece vows to push through austerity, warns of default ‘chaos’
ATHENS— Greece’s future in the eurozone came under renewed threat Friday as popular protests again turned violent and dissent grew among its lawmakers after European leaders demanded deeper spending cuts.
The country’s beleaguered coalition government promised to push through the tough new austerity measures and rescue a crucial € 130 billion ($170 billion) bailout deal after six cabinet members resigned.
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos promised to “do everything necessary” to ensure parliament passes the new austerity measures that would slap Greeks with a minimum-wage cut during a fifth year of recession. He also promised to replace any other cabinet members who did not fully back him.
“It is absolutely necessary to complete the effort that began almost two years ago to consolidate public finances, restore competitiveness and economic recovery,” Papademos told an emergency cabinet meeting. Draft legislation for the new austerity measures was submitted to parliament after the fivehour meeting ended.
In central Athens, clashes erupted outside parliament between dozens of hooded youths and police in riot gear. Police said eight officers and two members of the public were injured, while six suspected rioters were arrested. The violence broke as more than 15,000 people took to the streets of the capital after unions launched a two-day general strike that disrupted transport and other public services and left state hospitals running on emergency staff. Scores of youths, some in gas masks, used sledgehammers to smash up marble paving stones in Athens’ main Syntagma Square before hurling the rubble at riot police. Debt-stricken Greece does not have the money to cover a € 14.5 billion bond repayment on March 20, and must reach a vital debtrelief deal with private bond investors before then. Earlier Friday, the small rightwing LAOS party in Papademos’s coalition said it would not back the new measures and four of its officials in the cabinet resigned, including the country’s transport minis- ter. Two Socialist cabinet members have also quit.
LAOS leader George Karatzaferis said rescue creditors had humiliated Greece. “Of course we do not want to be outside the EU, but we can get by without being under the German jackboot,” he said. “I would rather starve.”