Protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at police, who responded with tear gas to expressions of violence that occurred during demonstrations against austerity measures were held outside parliament on Wednesday.
The clashes occurred when lawmakers began debating controversial necessary to start negotiations on the new rescue package and avoid the financial collapse of Greece measures.
Groups of young people were among the 12,500 demonstrators stoned shops and set fire to at least one vehicle. The clashes are the first violent protest since the radical left Syriza party came to power in January promising to fight austerity. Police said at least 50 people were arrested.
The protest was synchronized with the start of debate on legislation that includes tax hikes and reforms to the pension system that will condemn the Greeks more years economic hardship.
The law has caused outrage among members of the ruling party Syriza and led to an internal revolt against the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who insisted that the agreement reached with creditors on Monday after a summit that lasted 17 hours was the only option to avoid the financial collapse of the country.
“I must tell you that Monday morning, at 9:30, was the hardest day of my life. It was a decision will weigh me the rest of my life, “said Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos.
” I do not know if we did the right thing. But I know that we did it with the feeling that we had no choice. Nothing was nothing is safe, “he said at the start of the debate.
Public Employees went on strike which disrupted transportation and caused the closure of government services throughout the country.
expected Syriza many lawmakers reject the package and vote against the bill, which raises questions about the government’s survival in its present form. It is expected that the bill is passed with the votes in favor of the pro-European opposition parties.
The alternate Finance Minister Nadia Valavani, said he could not vote for the law and resigned.
In a letter he sent to Tsipras on Monday and released Wednesday, Valavani said that the tactics of the “ruling circles in Germany” represent “total humiliation of the government and the country.”
The Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy, Hands Manousakis, also resigned because of the agreement.
Under the agreement, Greece must approve new austerity measures left the party in government had vowed to fight for negotiations on a third bailout amounting to start 85,000 million euros (93,000 million dollars) in loans over the next three years.
The government, a coalition between Syriza and the small right-wing party Independent Greeks, has 162 seats in Parliament, composed of 300 lawmakers. More than 30 delegates from Syriza have expressed opposition to the rescue
Tsipras recognized that the austerity measures it promised to fight during his campaign are “irrational” but said he had no choice but to accept to avoid collapse.
The International Monetary Fund, which participated in the previous two bailouts to Greece and participate in the third, has long said that the country’s debt is too high and that any agreement should include removing debt , something that the Greeks have insisted.
On Tuesday, the IMF said the Greek debt is “highly unsustainable” and would become equivalent to “almost 200% of GDP in the next two years” .
On Wednesday the executive committee of the European Union echoes the analysis by saying that there are serious concerns about the sustainability of Greek debt due to worsening economic performance was made.
Tsipras also faces the open dissent of his senior ministers, including Energy, Panagiotis Lafazanis, who published on the Web site a statement from the ministry said that the agreement is “unacceptable.”
The pharmacies They joined the strike with 24-hour strike to object to the austerity measures that allow certain drugs sold without a prescription to be sold in supermarkets.
The Greeks still face the problem of the limits on cash withdrawals in banks and transfers from abroad. Banks are closed from June 29 and the Ministry of Finance reported that they remain closed until Thursday.
The liquidity of Greek banks are dangerously low and the state has nearly run out of cash. Monday is the deadline to make a payment by 4,200 million euros to the European Central Bank, and there are more than 2,600 million euros to the IMF default.
It is estimated that the negotiations on the new bailout will last four weeks, forcing the finance ministers of the euro area to strive to contribute money quickly to Athens.
The European Commission proposed giving Greece 7,000 million in loans from a special fund supervised by the 28 nations of the EU so that it can meet its future debt. The payment would be made at the start of full recovery but there is resistance from Britain, which does not use the common currency of the EU.
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