May 6, 2010
Greeks greet another government austerity plan, and an IMF/EU rescue package, with riots and violence.
The headlines this week were about riots, petrol bombs, tear gas and strikes. In Athens demonstrators stormed up to the steps of the parliament building, where an austerity plan was about to be debated, calling on the parliamentary “thieves” to come out. Three people were killed when protesters set fire to a bank. Hours later, with tear gas drifting over the adjacent square, parliamentary leaders held a brief, sombre exchange on the significance of the deaths, vowing to sustain the principle that protest must be peaceful. Many citizens agreed that it was a sad moment for the birthplace of democracy.
Yet Athenians were also saying, with wistful smiles, that, for the past ten years or so, it had been a good party. For the backdrop to the riots was that, in a mixed mood of resignation, black humour and bitterness, Greeks were bidding farewell to a decade in which everything good and bad about their country grew feverishly as money washed over it. There were sporting and cultural extravaganzas, starting with the 2004 Olympics. Archaeological sites were spruced up, spanking new buildings erected. The middle class grew larger and more sophisticated. And many people at the bottom of the pile breathed a bit easier, if only because immigrants from poorer places came to harvest their olives and work in their restaurants.
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