FIERCE battles took place outside the Greek parliament building (the Vouli) on Sunday night as riot police attacked the 30,000 youth, workers and poor farmers protesting against savage cuts to pensions.
Outraged lawyers and farmers pushed right in front of the Vouli’s unknown soldier monument shouting with their loud hailers ‘Tsipras you are a traitor’, ‘Get out, get out’ and ‘Down with the austerity measures’.
Trades unions’ and students’ banners proclaimed ‘Out with the government, the EU and the IMF!’ This was a rally where workers, the unemployed, middle class professions, poor farmers and students were once again united in a struggle to defeat the austerity measures, imposed by the EU and the IMF, and the hated coalition government of Alexis Tsipras, the leader of SYRIZA (Coalition of Radical Left party).
While inside the Vouli Tsipras’ 153 parliamentary deputies (a majority of just three in the 300-seat parliament) voted in the Bill, outside the Vouli, Greek armed riot police squads launched a vicious attack on the demonstration.
Police sprayed the crowds with CRS tear gas and used their truncheons as they charged against the mass rally. After voting in the Bill, Greek parliamentary representatives met with the Eurogroup on Monday to discuss the country’s debt crisis.
The meeting discussed new debt relief measures with a view to avoiding the prospect of a default in July, when Greece is due make its next major repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank.
