Passing of Greek austerity bill sparks protest

Greek legislators passed a bill Thursday outlining austerity measures needed to release emergency loans for the near-bankrupt country, sparking another day of street violence in Athens.

The bill, which clears the way for a rescue package worth more than $140 billion Cdn from euro zone countries and the International Monetary Fund, was approved by 172 votes in favour and 121 against.

After the results were announced, protesters clashed with police outside Greece's parliament. Riot police fired tear gas to drive off stone-throwing youths.

The government announced last weekend that it would cut its budget deficit by $40 billion in order to secure the international bailout.

The measures include consumer tax hikes, salary cuts for civil servants and a pension freeze.

Greece urgently needs the first instalment of loans if it is to avoid defaulting on May 19, when it has more than $11 billion worth of bonds due.

The vote was held on the same day that Greek bank workers walked off the job in a 24-hour strike, reacting to the deaths of three colleagues who died after a bank was torched by protesters during anti-government demonstrations.

Wednesday's deaths shocked the public in a country where violence during demonstrations is frequent but rarely results in casualties.

"I have difficulty in finding the words to express my distress and outrage," President Karolos Papoulias said late Wednesday.

"Our country came to the brink of the abyss. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we don't step over the edge."

CBC's Margaret Evans reports from Athens:

"The scars of yesterday's violence are plain to see in the graffiti and shattered glass on the streets and outside the bank where three people died after it was hit by a firebomb," the CBC's Margaret Evans reports from Athens, noting that Athenians placed flowers and candles outside the building for most of the morning.

"The vast majority of those demonstrating yesterday did so peacefully," she said. "The violence started by fringe groups and anarchists, but there is still palpable rage directed at the government on the streets here." 

The deaths came as an estimated 100,000 people marched through Athens during a countrywide strike against the government's additional austerity measures.

Wednesday's demonstration — the first major protests since the new measures were announced Sunday — quickly turned violent, with hundreds of protesters breaking away from the march and trying to storm parliament, shouting "thieves, traitors."

Demonstrators ripped up paving stones, hurling them and Molotov cocktails at buildings and police, who responded with tear gas.

Protesters smashed shops, hotels and car rental stores along their march, burning at least two buildings — the bank and a branch of the Finance Ministry — as well as several vehicles.

Police said Thursday that 41 police were injured in the riots, as were 15 civilians. A total of 70 people were detained.

A senior fire department official said lives could have been saved but demonstrators prevented firefighters from reaching the burning bank.

"Several crucial minutes were lost," the official said. "If we had intervened earlier, the loss of life could have been prevented."

The bank workers' union, OTOE, called a strike for Thursday to protest the deaths of their colleagues — two women and a man, aged between 32 and 36 — condemning the violence but saying that the deaths were the result of the government's move to impose austerity measures.

Many banks in central Athens remained open despite the call for a strike.