Politie Athene zet traangas in tegen demonstranten terwijl Griekse parlement met crisismaatregelen instemt (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As the Greek parliament managed to narrowly pass a package of sweeping privatisation and draconian cuts to public services at the insistence of the EU and IMF i, police deployed an unprecedented level of violence to suppress mass protests and prevent demonstrators from blocking the parliament.
With a slim 155 in favour and 137 against, the centre-left government of Prime Minister George Papandreou i managed to pressure all rebel MPs to back the package, shocking his deputies with visions of tanks on the streets of the capital if the bill did not pass.
Only one Pasok MP voted against, while one opposition conservative MP voted with the government to deliver a victory to the mid-term package of €28 billion in public sector cuts and €50 billion in sell-off of state assets required by international lenders before the latest, €12 billion tranche of bail-out cash is delivered to the country.
Ahead of the vote, the deputy prime minister Theodoroas Pangalos, declared:
"A return to the drachma would mean that on the following day banks would be surrounded by terrified people trying to withdraw their money, the army would have to protect them with tanks because there would not be enough police."
"There would be riots everywhere, shops would be empty, some people would throw themselves out the window."
Meanwhile, outside the chamber, some 5000 riot police firing volley after volley of tear gas and stun grenades at a largely peaceful crowd, including into a makeshift hospital in central Syntagma Square, those present described the scene as less the quashing of a riot than the suppression of a popular uprising.
A local television channel, Skai TV, has reported hundreds of injuries, the majority arising from breathing difficulties arising from the gas.
Protesters insisted that the majority of people in the square facing down what they described as "chemical warfare" had gathered peacefully, with only small numbers of "provocateurs" challenging the police.
The head of the country's pharmacists' association has accused the police of criminal actions and pleaded for the gassing to end.
The upping of the repression on Wednesday follows on from attempts by authorities to clear the square using gas during a free protest concert on Tuesday night featuring famous Greek celebrities including Vasilis Papaconstantinou, the namesake of the former finance minister.
Unconfirmed Twitter reports from on the ground suggest that plastic bullets have also been fired on the crowd for the first time in the country since the military coup in 1967.