Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Clashes in Greece ahead of austerity vote

• Violent clashes before Parliament before the vote
• Government bill expected to pass through the medium
• Opposition MP says she will vote to adopt austerity measures law

Read the latest summary

13.44:

The Press Project has a useful tool for following the vote, although it appears to be running a bit slow at the moment. It is also livestreaming from parliament.

Here's a quick summary of events so far today:

Jonathan Rugman, Channel 4 News foreign correspondent, is tweeting the address to parliament by the Greek prime minister George Papandreou.



The police were pretty disgraceful (as usual) throwing rocks at groups of protesters (not 'anarchists' people of all ages) and generally lashing out and trying to 'kettle' protestors into smaller side streets so they could then throw the tear gas at them. Their 'orders' were clear.

The prevailing mood in Greece right now is one of blind anger: people say we don't want any more bailouts just leave us alone.

Teargas is still being fired but thousands of people have been driven out of Syntagma Square.

Heather Stewart The Observer 's business editor to answer all your questions about what this result means.

You may be interested in the likely consequences for the Greek economy, the euro zone, or hold for those Greek debt. Please post your questions in the comments.

12.14: BBC Newsnight 's Paul Mason, in Athens, tweets, that many non-violent demonstrators were caught up in the clashes.



12.07pm:

This makes it all the more likely that the bill will be passed.

Massive teargassing and hand grenades thrown by riot police against the crowd at Syntagma sq now

11.17: Live streaming is Dailymotion.com Syntagma Square again today:

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11.08: Only one member of the ruling (Socialist) PASOK party will probably vote against the bill - not enough given his place, that prevent a five-seat PASOK majority in the 300-member legislature - Alexandros Athanassiadis socialist deputy, the Associated Press said.

10.42am:


10.36am:




We have never really had a debate in this country about what went wrong. In Portugal, the new government has come and said that there will be a difficult two years ahead. We do not have that kind of discussion here ...

For Parliament to vote against this package would be a crime - the country would vote for his suicide.

10.23: My colleague Graeme Wearden

Spending cuts

Trade Unionists have vowed to stop MPs getting into parliament for the vote but security in the centre of Athens is high. There are fears of more violent crashes after at least 46 people were injured, most of them police, yesterday as rioters pelted police with chunks of marble and ripped up paving stones, and authorities responded with repeated volleys of teargas and stun grenades.



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