socialrupture:Anti-austerity protesters fight police, torch buildings — Athens, GreeceGreek po

socialrupture:Anti-austerity protesters fight police, torch buildings — Athens, GreeceGreek police have fired tear gas at thousands of protesters hurling stones and petrol bombs outside parliament in Athens, as lawmakers inside debated a bill packed with more unpopular austerity measures.Al Jazeera’s John Psaropoulos, reporting from Athens, said the protest on Sunday began peacefully but had rapidly descended into violence from both police and protesters.“There is absolute mayhem in the square outside parliament. Thousands of [people] who started peacefully have not been budged by all the tear gas and stun grenades,” he said.By nightfall, an estimated 100,000 protesters were massed outside the building and at nearby Omonia Square, with some 6,000 police deployed and more protesters arriving. At least five building were in flames in downtown Athens, including a bank, mobile phone shop, glassware store and a cafeteria. Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Phillips, who arrived in Athens as the violence was escalating, described the atmosphere as “surreal”.“The air is think with tear gas and there are debris and rocks everywhere. I’m now standing by a cinema, and it is no more. It’s going up in flames and firefighters are struggling to control it,” Barnaby said.He continued: “I’m looking back now at another building on fire. It’s quite surreal the scene here.”Despite the increasing violence in the streets,  Al Jazeera’s Psaropoulos pointed out “the real news is occurring inside parliament”.“What this evening is about is the real concern about the deep cuts and the very deep public displeasure that surrounds them,” Psaropoulos said.‘Social catastrophe’Filippos Petsalnikos, the parliament president, opened the key session on Sunday to debate fresh austerity measures passed by the government, needed to unlock an international rescue package and avoid default..The two remaining parties in the ruling coalition, Socialist PASOK and conservative New Democracy, are backing the measures and account for 236 out of a total of 300 deputies, but some MPs are certain to reject the package.The vote on the measures is not expected until 2200 GMT on Sunday.The debate comes after the prime minister warned that the nation was approaching “Ground Zero”.“We are a breath away from Ground Zero,” Lucas Papademos said in a televised address on the eve of the vote, urging deputies to grasp their “historic responsibility” to secure the country’s financial future.Papademos warned of “economic and social catastrophe” if parliament failed to agree the cuts required to obtain a second massive bail-out from the EU and IMF, to the tune of $171bn, and avoid default.There are also signs of growing unrest in the government ranks. Two PASOK junior ministers and four members of the far-right LAOS party have quit the cabinet in protest in the run-up to the vote.http://www.aljazeera.com//news/europe/2012/02/2012212114832570350.html -- source link

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