February 22, 2012
In the end it was a bit of a damp squib: protesters, put off by the rain and perhaps fatigue, did not come in their thousands to oppose the emergency legislation that is likely to change the face of Greece. But trade union leaders said it mattered not.
The €130bn (£110bn) bailout deal secured in the early hours of Tuesday had not erased the anger or despair of Greeks. "Two years ago we were demonstrating about [wage and pension] cuts but now they want to take away everything," said Ilias Iliopoulos at the civil servants' union Adedy. "People are literally hungry and the number of homeless is growing every day … soon they won't take anymore. There'll be a popular revolt."
Barely a day after Athens agreed to the excoriating EU/European Central Bank/IMF terms to be saved from bankruptcy for a second time, popular fury at the terms of the rescue shows no signs of ebbing.
Demonstrators at an Athens rally on Wednesday night claimed the argument, articulated by the Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, that the debt-choked country has escaped a "nightmare" meant little when so many had already been impoverished. "It would be bad but it's already bad, and it's going to get a lot worse," said Evangelia Fasilakaki, an umbrella in her hands as she evoked the deepening mood of resignation and defeat. "They are even closing down cancer wards here."
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