Clashes have broken out at an anti-austerity rally by thousands of protesters outside Parliament in Athens.
Riot police used pepper spray and tear gas on Wednesday night to
fight back youths in the crowd who were hurling Molotov cocktails and
rocks at police.
Police said about 12,500 people were at the rally at Syntagma Square.
The clashes broke out just as lawmakers were starting to debate an
austerity bill that includes consumer tax increases and pension reforms.
Al Jazeera's Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from Athens, said the
protesters chanted anti-austerity slogans, and engaged in running
battles with police.
"A lot of anger just boiled over," he said, adding that riot police are still out in force outside the parliament.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has faced strident opposition to
the bill from his own radical left Syriza party, says it's the best
possible deal he could get to prevent Greece from being forced out of
Europe's joint euro currency.
Earlier on Wednesday, former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has
told parliament that Greece's rescue deal was like the Versailles
treaty, which forced crushing reparations on Germany after World War One
and led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
"'The powerful demanded that the losers accept terms they had no
right to demand. The losers accepted commitments they had no right to
accept'. These were the words of John Maynard Keynes on the Versailles
Treaty. What we are confronted with is a new Versailles Treaty," the
self-avowed "erratic Marxist" told fellow lawmakers ahead of a vote on
the rescue deal on Wednesday.
Varoufakis, whose fiery language alienated many of his euro zone
colleagues during five months of negotiations, resigned after Greeks
rejected bailout terms in a July 5 referendum in order to facilitate
talks. A deal was reached one week later.
He did not say if he would vote against it, or if he would even attend
the key vote expected after midnight. Last week he skipped a vote on giving Tsipras a mandate to negotiate a deal.
Tsipras, who has faced strident opposition to the bill
from his own radical left Syriza party, says it is the best possible
deal he could get to prevent Greece from being forced out of Europe's
joint euro currency.
Up to forty Syriza lawmakers are expected to vote against the deal
that requires parliament to agree to a raft of tax hikes and pension
reforms if bailout talks with international lenders are to start.
The deal is all but certain to pass because pro-EU opposition
lawmakers will vote for it, but Tsipras's leadership could be seriously
weakened if he has to rely on other parties.
Varoufakis noted in a blog on Tuesday that he had warned of the risks
of "a new Versailles treaty" when the first Greek bailout was
negotiated in 2010.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was asked at a news conference after
Monday's accord whether it was not reminiscent of the 1919 Versailles
treaty reparations.
She tried to make light of the question, saying she would not take
part in historical comparisons, "especially when I didn't make them
myself".
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
copy http://www.aljazeera.com/news/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário