Anti-austerity protesters rally at Greek Parliament
Several hundred anti-austerity protesters, chanting slogans against the European Union and IMF, rallied near Parliament in Athens on Sunday as a deepening crisis forced Greece’s leftist government to announce capital controls on the banking system.
The protest began with a demonstration in front of the offices of the European Commission in Athens. The ground was strewn with leaflets reading “Drachma better than submission” and “We don’t owe, we won’t sell, we won’t pay.”
The protest was the latest in a string of rallies both for and against the government in recent weeks, as Athens grappled with international creditors in increasingly antagonistic negotiations to unlock billions of euros in bailout funds.
The rally was smaller than other recent demonstrations, which have numbered in the thousands, and far smaller than the protests involving tens of thousands seen a few years ago at other points during the crisis.
With talks breaking off after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum on the bailout, and the European Central Bank deciding to freeze funding to Greece’s crippled banks, the Greek financial system is on the brink of collapse.
[Reuters]
