ATHENS | Greek police fired tear gas to repel stone-throwing protesters after lawmakers approved drastic austerity cuts Thursday needed to secure international rescue loans worth $140 billion.
The new clashes came a day after violent protests left three people dead after a bank was firebombed.
Greek lawmakers voted 172-121 to approve the austerity measures - worth about $38.18 billion through 2012 - that will slash pensions and civil servants’ pay and further hike consumer taxes.
The rescue loans are aimed at containing the debt crisis and keeping Greece’s troubles from spreading to other countries with vulnerable state finances such as Portugal and Spain. The money will come from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the 15 other governments whose countries use the euro.
Clashes in Athens broke out at the end of a main protest that drew tens of thousands of people as police pushed back a few thousand demonstrators outside parliament.
The violence was quickly contained, with riot police firing tear gas at the protesters, who had earlier pelted them with stones, oranges and bottles. Several small fires burned in surrounding streets. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Demonstrators banging drums and shouting anti-government slogans through bullhorns unfurled a giant black banner outside parliament earlier Thursday. More than 30,000 demonstrators filled downtown streets, chanting “They declared war. Now fight back.”
Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled three Socialist deputies who dissented in the vote, reducing the party’s number of seats to 157 in the 300-member parliament.
“We have done what was necessary, not what was easy,” Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said after the vote. “Without these measures, we’d be thrown into the deepest recession this country has ever known.”
The bulk of Thursday’s protest - organized by the Greek Communist Party - quickly dispersed, leaving about 5,000 demonstrators outside parliament before police pushed them back.
Protester Thodoris Mougiakos said he was angry the IMF would control Greek finances.
“It’s blackmail,” the 32-year-old engineer said. “There is money, but they spend it on things like armaments and businesses. The church has money, too. If we had been drawing money from all these sources, we wouldn’t be in this situation now,”
But the protest remained peaceful, in contrast with Wednesday’s rioting that left three people dead, 59 injured and 25 people arrested. Police said 50 stores, banks and offices were damaged and seven vehicles damaged or burned.
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