Greek police clash with anti-austerity demonstrators in Athens. Source: Reuters Link to this video
Vanna Mendaleni is a middle aged Greek woman who until now has not
had vehement feelings about the crisis that has engulfed her country.
But that changed when the softly spoken undertaker, closing her
family-run funeral parlour, joined thousands of protesters on Thursday
in a mass outpouring of fury over austerity policies that have plunged
ever growing numbers of Greeks into poverty and fear.
"After three
years of non-stop taxes and wage cuts it's got to the point where
nothing has been left standing," she said drawing on a cigarette. "It's
so bad families can no longer afford to even bury their dead. Bodies lie
unclaimed at public hospitals so that the local municipality can bury
them."
As
Greece
was brought to a grinding halt by its second general strike in less
than a month, Mendaleni wanted to send a message to the Greek prime
minister, Antonis Samaras, and other EU leaders meeting in Brussels.
"We
once had a life that was dignified. Now the country has gone back 50
years and these politicians have to be made aware that enough is
enough."
Greek demonstrations are not now marked by the vehemence or violence of the mass protests that occurred when
Europe's
debt drama erupted in Athens, forcing the then socialist government to
announce pay and pension cuts, tax increases and benefit losses that few
had anticipated. Anger and bewilderment have been replaced by
disappointment and despair.
But the quiet fortitude that has been
on display could soon run out in the country on the frontline of the
continent's worst crisis since the second world war. For on Thursday
demonstrators were sure of one thing: if pushed too far they may be
pushed over the edge.
"Personally, I'm amazed there hasn't been a revolution," said Panaghiotis Varotsos, a computer programmer.
"In
Portugal they're rioting over one measure when here we've been made to
accept countless cuts and tax increases. And the worst thing about being
ground down is that it breeds extremism," said the silver-haired
leftist. "In the case of Greece it is extremism that is going to the
right because [the neo-Nazi party] Golden Dawn has managed to exploit
people's despair. But it won't just stay here. It will spread, like this
economic crisis, to other parts of Europe, too."
For the vast
majority of those who took to the streets, the tipping point could be
the latest round of austerity measures being demanded of the
debt-stricken country in return for the international rescue funds it so
desperately needs to keep bankruptcy at bay.
Under intense
pressure from international creditors at the EU and IMF, Samaras'
fragile coalition has been forced to draw up a draconian package of
spending cuts worth €13.5bn – the price of a whopping €31.5bn loan
instalment that is already four months overdue. Officials have suggested
the burden will fall on society's most vulnerable with pensioners and
low-income Greeks once again having to make the biggest sacrifices.
"After
nearly 50 years of work and paying into an expensive pension fund, I
have been forced to retire on €1,000 a month and if they pass these
measures it will be even less," said 60-year-old Nikos Xeros, who until
this year had repaired ships since the age of 16. "It's like having a
noose about your neck that is getting ever tighter. The next time I come
out to demonstrate it's going to be with a gas mask and a big wooden
club."
Law enforcement officials cut off access to Syntagma Square
– home of the Greek parliament – before protesters could reach it,
stoking widespread fury on Thursday. For some it was evidence of the
mounting fears that parliament could be stormed.
"Greeks are
becoming increasingly conscious … and it was especially noticeable that
the main slogan today was 'the time has come to overthrow these
polices'," said Tania Karayiannis of the union of civil servants. As
many as 80,000 people participated in the protests in Athens alone, she
said. "The political leadership of this country should not underestimate
that. If they don't take our opposition seriously they will bear
historic responsibility for the disintegration of Greece's social fabric
and the developments that will surely follow."
end quote from:
Greece brought to a standstill by despairing protests over austerity
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