Video: Clashes in Greece over bailout demands
By Harry Papachristou and Dina Kyriakidou, with additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris in Athens, Stephen Brown in Berlin; Writing David Stamp; Editing by Louise Ireland
10 February 2012 ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told his turbulent coalition government on Friday to accept a harsh international bailout deal or condemn the nation to catastrophe. “We cannot allow Greece to go bankrupt,” he told a cabinet meeting. “Our priority is to do whatever it takes to approve the new economic program and proceed with the new loan agreement.” Papademos, the sole technocrat in a coalition of feuding politicians, tried to assert his authority after six cabinet members resigned over EU and IMF demands for yet more pay, pension, and job cuts in return for the financial rescue. “It goes without saying that whoever disagrees and does not vote for the new program cannot remain in the government,” he said in televised remarks. Greece faces bankruptcy unless it gets the funds from the IMF and European Union by March 20 when it has to repay 14.5 billion euros ($19 billion) in maturing bonds. A former central banker, Papademos tried to raise Greeks’ spirits as the nation enters its fifth year of recession, saying economic growth would return in 2013 despite accusations that the austerity is merely driving Greece into a downward spiral. Any alternative to the rescue would be much worse, he said in opening remarks using the word “catastrophe” four times. “The social cost that the program entails will be limited, compared with the economic and social catastrophe which would follow if we don’t adopt it,” he said. […] Outside parliament, police fired tear gas at black-masked protesters who threw petrol bombs, stones and bottles at the start of a 48-hour general strike against the cuts ordered by the “troika” of international lenders. But the street protests were relatively small compared to last year’s mass rallies. […] The biggest police trade union said it would issue arrest warrants for Greece’s international lenders for subverting democracy, and refused to “fight against our brothers.” A daily newspaper depicted German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a swastika armband. […] The austerity plan includes lowering the minimum wage by 22 percent, axing 150,000 public sector jobs and reducing pensions. Some protesters compared Greece’s plight, facing bankruptcy unless it accedes to the demands of international lenders, to its seven years under military dictatorship. On Syntagma Square in central Athens, songs from the struggle in the 1960s and 1970 against a junta of colonels boomed out over loudspeakers. […] “Do not bow your heads! Resist!” They chanted. “No to layoffs! No to salary cuts! No to pension cuts! […]
