A rock makes its way toward Greek riot policemen in a clash with protestors in the center of Athens over unprecedented austerity cuts needed to avert fiscal meltdown. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images)
Associated Press | Deadly riots over new austerity measures engulfed the streets of Athens
on Wednesday, and three people were killed as angry protesters tried to
storm parliament, hurled Molotov cocktails at police and torched
buildings.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets as
part of nationwide strikes to protest new taxes and government spending
cuts demanded by the International Monetary Fund and other European
nations before heavily indebted Greece gets a $141 billion bailout
package of loans to keep it from defaulting.
Three people died
after being trapped in a burning bank along the main demonstration
route in central Athens — the first deaths during a protest in Greece
since 1991, when four people trapped in a burning office building were
killed. Another five were rescued.
“A demonstration is one thing and murder is quite another,” Prime Minister George Papandreou thundered in Parliament during a session to discuss the spending cuts he announced Sunday. Lawmakers held a minute of silence for the dead.
In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel called the bailout critical for all of Europe.
“Nothing less than the future of Europe, and with that the future of Germany in Europe, is at stake,” Merkel told lawmakers. “We are at a fork in the road.”
On the streets of Athens, demonstrators chanted “Thieves, thieves!” as they attempted to break through a riot police cordon guarding Parliament and chased ceremonial guards away from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the building.
Tear gas drifted across the city center as rioters hurled paving stones and fire bombs at police. Firefighters extinguished blazes in at least two buildings — the bank and a branch of the Finance Ministry — while protesters set up burning barricades and torched cars and a fire truck.
The marches came amid a 24-hour nationwide general strike that grounded all flights to and from Greece, shut down ports, schools and government services and left hospitals working with emergency medical staff. The Acropolis and all other ancient sites were closed and journalists also walked off the job, suspending television and radio news broadcasts.
But media later broke the strike to report on the deaths and the violence during the protests.
Mark my words…tzatziki sauce will flow through the streets of Athens over this!
How dumb can these people be? First they screw up their own economy by following Socialist policies, then when they get bailed out they protest over that? Idiots.
Greece, the birth place of Western Civilization and most of our culture and philosophy, is in financial ruin because of years of Socialist Governments. Is the current financial debacle in Greece and Europe going to spread and is the United States going to face similar problems in a few years? We have huge deficits, some individual states like California and Illinois facing possible bankruptcy, and a National Government that spends far more than it takes in in taxes. I hope I am wrong but this financial mess could spread worldwide.
This is a good look at our future if we don’t stop the European-style government Obama/Pelosi/Reid so covet. This is what happens when to make your citizens totally dependent on government. The Greek economy goes down in flames, and a good chunk of the rest of Europe is about to follow. Yet our idiots in Washington and Springfield continue merrily along, adding trillions to our debt with no way out of it. Idiots!
Elgin Brian wrote: “This is a good look at our future if we don’t stop the European-style government Obama/Pelosi/Reid so covet.”
Bzzzzzzzzt. Wrong. OUR financial crisis was a look at THEIR future. This is simply the ripple effect finally impacting them. “European style government”? That doesn’t even mean anything…there’s no such thing.
Wow, so in case anyone was guessing what the GOP talking point orders are for this week, just read Depot Jim and Elgin Brian’s posts.
The economic crisis Europe is now facing started HERE, brainiacs. It can’t spread from Europe to the U.S., when this is where it started in the first place.
Could we see this in the USA in a few short years? The current government US spending levels are unsustainable. Something has to give.
Wow, so in case anyone was guessing what the GOP talking point orders are for this week, just read Depot Jim and Elgin Brian’s posts.
The economic crisis Europe is now facing started HERE, brainiacs. It can’t spread from Europe to the U.S., when this is where it started in the first place.
mike | May 5, 2010 9:42 AM | Reply
Wow, so in case anyone was guessing what the GOP talking point orders are for this week, just read Depot Jim and Elgin Brian’s posts.
Mike, I was discussing the economic problems in Greece and did not know I was following “GOP talking point orders” as you claim. It is too bad that you see everything as a Democrat vs Republican thing. If the financial problems in Greece and Europe spread to the United States it will not matter whether you are a Democrat, Republican or an Independent, you will feel the financial pain. You need to get away from your narrow minded petty politics and wake up and smell the coffee. The financial problems in Greece and what negative effects it can have on Europe and the rest of the world is very serious.
A whole country full of Alexi Gionoulis’ screwing up everything they touch.
I better stock up on the feta!
I’m clearly too informed and intelligent to bother to discuss this issue with you people. Suffice it to say that those with the most to say are also the most incorrect (i.e., “Depot Jim” who clearly is very full of himself, in spite of being woefully uninformed, simply spewing the opinions others have conditioned him to say on cue). You can’t discuss “economic problems” when it’s clear that you have no idea what you’re talking about or what led to those problems. You input is worthless when it is as flawed and false as yours is, Jimbo.
Get over yourself and get a clue.
Right Wing Nutcase | May 5, 2010 11:15 AM | Reply
I’m clearly too informed and intelligent to bother to discuss this issue with you people. Suffice it to say that those with the most to say are also the most incorrect (i.e., “Depot Jim” who clearly is very full of himself, in spite of being woefully uninformed, simply spewing the opinions others have conditioned him to say on cue). You can’t discuss “economic problems” when it’s clear that you have no idea what you’re talking about or what led to those problems. You input is worthless when it is as flawed and false as yours is, Jimbo.
Get over yourself and get a clue.
Right Wing Nutcase, your post makes NO SENSE. I do not know whose opinions I am supposed to be presenting “on cue” as you suggest. If you do not think there are economic problems in Greece that may have fallout and effect the rest of Europe I suggest you read a newspaper or watch the television news. I do not know what planet you have been living on but this has been a big story and has been reported extensively by television and the print media. The only news I have gotten on Greece has been different news outlets of the Main Stream Media that has been reporting this story. There are a lot of people, including many world economists, that are very concern that the financial problems in Greece could spread. Only time will tell if this happens.
THIS is what happens when you have ‘hand outs’ and you can no longer afford them. America is like this now; welfare people STAY on welfare and then their children STAY on welfare, etc. The US is next.
Depot- Jim : Don’t pay attention to “Right Wing Nutcase”, s/he is just a (D)(D)(D) that does not understand the concept that you cannot spend more than you earn and that government cannot “give” something to someone without taking it from someone else.
Greece had all of these social benefits that they could not pay for in a sustainable manner. Sounds like the road we are following here in the states. The (D)(D)(D)s seem to think that since the (R)s spent money on a war, they get to accelerate spending on lots of new social programs, kind of like flooring it when you are heading towards the cliff.
Something about this and Greek bankers did sound awfully familiar. Thanks, Taxpayer. I guess the Greek financial crisis, both in Europe and in Chicago, were all caused by Mark Kirk. If the guy is that powerful, he ought to be Senator.