A protest in Athens took a violent turn as labor unions launched a strike over a raft of austerity measures. Workers worry they are being forced to accept salary cuts without receiving more bailout funds in return.
Image: Reuters/C. Baltas
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Greece strikes as Athens debates cuts - again
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Greek police in Athens fired tear gas to break up protesters at anti-austerity demonstrations on Wednesday. Some protesters in the crowd of some 12,000 people threw rocks and firecrackers at police.
The street protests were part of a 24-hour general strike by Greek workers over a new round of austerity measures insisted upon by the heavily indebted country's creditors. Travel was disrupted and hospitals were working with emergency staff only as the labor unions decried cuts to salaries and pensions.
More than 150 flights were grounded in the middle of the day as air-traffic controllers joined in the strike for four hours.
Some protesters signs read, "No to the new looting of salaries and pensions"Image: Reuters/C. Baltas
"We want to send a decisive message to the government, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund that we will not let them cut up our lives," Alekos Perrakis, a senior member of Communist union PAME, told reporters.
The regulations are set to be voted on in parliament on Thursday.
Merkel, Tspiras talk debt relief
While many Greeks have swallowed the bitter pills of previous austerity measures, what incensed the striking workers on Wednesday was news that many of the cost-cutting rules will be extended beyond the terms of the country's most recent rescue package. In their eyes, this was tantamount to a fourth bailout without receiving any new funds to help the struggling economy.
"No to the new looting of salaries and pensions," the civil servants' union ADEDY said in a statement.
On top of the general strike, mariners were in the midst of a four-day walkout, shutting down ferry services between Greece's many islands and the mainland.
Also on Wednesday, Tsipras spoke via telephone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the Athens' financial situation. According to Tspiras' cabinet, the two leaders agreed that an upcoming meeting of the Eurogroup, the countries that use the common euro currency, on May 22 would be dedicated to resolving Greece's debt crisis.
es/sms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)
Seven years of bailouts, but Greeks sink deeper into poverty
As Greece's poverty rate doubles despite billions in aid, most Greeks struggle to cover costs and many depend on soup kitchens and handouts.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Y. Karahalis
Economic hardship
A growing number of Greeks is barely making ends meet. After seven years of bailouts that poured billions of euros into their country, poverty is still an issue, worssening like nowhere else in the EU.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Three bailouts for Greece
Above, people line up to apply for social benefits in Athens. The global financial crisis and its fallout forced four euro zone countries to turn to international lenders. Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus all went through rescue programs - and their economies are growing again. But Greece, the first to receive a bailout in 2010, has already needed three support lines.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Going through hard times
Eva Agkisalaki, 61, a former teacher who volunteers in a soup kitchen run by the Orthodox church, did not qualify for a pension because her contract ended when the retirement age was lifted to 67 under the bailout program. Part of her husband's pension - cut to €600 ($634) from €980 as part of the reform package demanded by the international lenders - goes to her son and daughter's families.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Most Greeks "just exist"
Eva receives handouts from the soup kitchen which she shares with her unemployed daughter and her son. "We're vegetating," she says between setting a long wooden
table for the next meal of bean soup, bread, an egg, a slice of pizza and an apple. "We just exist. Most Greeks just exist."
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
No debt forgiveness
An elderly man sells chestnuts in front of the parliament building in Athens during a demonstration demanding tax cuts. International creditors are urging tax hikes and pension cuts, but the government says the country has seen enough austerity.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Below the poverty line
An elderly woman eyes donated clothes at a soup kitchen. Greece isn't the poorest member of the EU - poverty rates are higher in Bulgaria and Romania. But it ranks third, with Eurostat data showing 22.2 percent of the population were "severely materially deprived" in 2015.
Image: Reuters/A.Konstantinidis
Little hope for better days
A man patiently waits to have his clothes washed by the Ithaca mobile laundry service. Volunteers drive a van across town with two washing machines and two dryers, offering their services ti the homeless. "You see the same faces, but also new ones," says Fanis Tsonas, co-founder of the mobile laundry as destitute
men and women approach the van toting bags of laundry.
