Man’s public suicide stuns Greece
Retired pharmacist takes life in Athens’ main square rather than ‘scrounging for food’
ATHENS— A cash-strapped retiree shot and killed himself in the busiest public square in Athens on Wednesday, saying he refused to scrounge for food in the rubbish, touching a nerve among ordinary Greeks feeling the brunt of the country’s economic crisis.
The public suicide of the 77-yearold retired pharmacist in Syntagma Square, across from the Greek parliament, quickly triggered an outpouring of sympathy in a country where one in five is jobless and a sense of national humiliation has accompanied successive rounds of salary and pension cuts.
Just hours after the death, an impromptu shrine with candles, flowers and handwritten notes condemning the crisis sprung up in the square. One note nailed to a tree said “Enough is enough,” while another asked, “Who will be the next victim?”
A few hundred protesters, who staged mass protests in 2011 against austerity measures imposed by foreign lenders in return for bailout loans, marched into Syntagma Square on Wednesday evening.
There were brief moments of tension when police fired tear gas at a group of protesters throwing gasoline bombs at them.
In Athens, witnesses said the man appeared in the busy square during the morning rush hour, put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger after yelling out: “I have debts, I can’t stand this anymore.”
Another passerby told Greek television the man said, “I don’t want to leave my debts to my children.”
A suicide note found in his pocket blamed politicians and financial troubles for pushing him over the edge, police said.
“I cannot find any other form of struggle except a dignified end before I have to start scrounging for food from the rubbish,” the note said.
The tragedy quickly took on a po- litical dimension, as small, antibailout parties gearing up for elections next month pinned the blame on bigger parties and on austerity measures prescribed by European partners and the International Monetary Fund. “When people start committing suicide in Syntagma Square, then it is the final straw that tears apart social cohesion,” far-right leader George Karatzaferis told parliament. Conservative leader Antonis Sa- maras said he was “devastated,” while Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos said it was “so shocking that it renders any political comment incongruous and cheap.” Technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos called on Greeks to help fellow citizens in trouble. Greece is stumbling through its worst post-world War II economic crisis as austerity measures imposed to sort out the country’s messy finances push it into a fifth year of recession.
The latest data show suicides jumped18 per cent in 2010 from the previous year as rising unemployment, higher taxes and shrinking wages drove ordinary Greeks to despair.
The president of the pharmacists’ union in the broader Attica region, Costas Lourantos, said he met the victim several years ago and was struck by his dignified manner.
“When dignified people like him are brought to this state, somebody must answer for it,” he said.