Demonstrators in Rome, Paris and Berlin say yes to migrants
ARAB FAMILY ATTACKED IN SLOVAKIA AS 10,000 JOIN GERMANY PROTEST ON WORLD REFUGEE DAY
Thousands of people took to the streets in several European cities on Saturday, in a show of solidarity with migrants seeking refuge in Europe and against austerity measures in debt-ridden Greece.
In Berlin, some 3,700 turned out according to local police, while organisers said 10,000 participated in a protest held on World Refugee Day, that had been called by German opposition parties Die Linke (The Left) and Gruenen (The Greens).
In the German capital, protesters chanted: “No frontiers, no nations, stop deportation!” and “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here!”
Marching from the bohemian Kreuzberg district to Brandenburg gate, some of the protesters held up Greek flags and posters bearings slogans supporting Athens, as a critical June 30 deadline in debt talks looms.
Should Greece fail to reach a deal with its international creditors to secure the last tranche of funds from its massive bailout, it risks defaulting and possibly crashing out of the Eurozone.
This “technocratic, cold and neoliberal Europe that is led by Germany is unbearable”, read one poster held up by a demonstrator.
Economic powerhouse Germany is seen by anti-austerity activists as taking uncompromising stances in the debt crises that have hit several European countries.
In Paris, police said 3,500 protesters including undocumented migrants rallied behind a banner that read: “Greece, France, Europe: austerity kills, democracy is dying, let’s resist!” Elsewhere in France, hundreds gathered in the southern city of Marseille and in Calais, the northern port city used as a springboard by migrants seeking to reach Britain.
In the southeast, activists gathered in Menton near the Italian border, in solidarity with hundreds of migrants stuck in Italy after France refused to allow them in.
Rome protests
In Rome too, scores of protesters braved the rain and gathered under the slogan “Stop the massacre now” to express solidarity with migrants risking their lives to sail across the Mediterranean Europe on rickety, overcrowded boats.
However in the Slovakian capital Bratislava, at least 140 people were arrested after several thousands protested against immigration and EU quotas on migrant numbers at a rally organised by a group called Stop the Islamisation of Europe.
Later in the train station, unidentified attackers later threw bottles and stones at an Arab family.