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Maria S. Topalova

Cameraman: Dimitris Tokuroglou

"Thieves and cheaters" and "Let this brothel burn down" were the slogans that protesters chanted as they were trying to break the police cordon, which guards the parliament building on Syntagma Square in Athens. Tension in the capital began to escalate after the campaign of the two unions - the Union of Greek Civil Servants (ADEDY) and the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) reached the square in front of the Greek National Assembly around one o’clock this afternoon. Special police units dispersed the flow of angry protestants using tear gas. Officers with anti-gas masks and shields pushed the crowd in order to be able to keep it at a safe distance from the Parliament building. Vassilis Sofiyas Boulevard is closed down at the level of the building of the Council of Ministers and the presidential residence Megaro Maksimou.

"PASOK and New Democracy stole our monehy, laundered our country and sold our dreams" and "Stop paying money to foreign usurers" read the two large canvases, which the protesters had spread on Amaliyas Boulevard in front of the Parliament. In the National Assembly building were allowed part of the union leaders of the two workers’ unions with a list of demands related to changes in labor legislation and the reform in the pension system of the country.

The discontent and agression against the reforms of government grew into conflicts between the protesters themselves. The members of leftist organizations in the protest have entered into a direct confrontation with the representatives of the extreme right nationalistic party "Golden sunrise". The fight was quickly ended and the members of "Golden sunrise" were thrown out of the strike.

Later followed a second strike of the protesters who attacked a small group from the police forces with stones and sticks. Young people with hidden faces and sportswear threw down a policeman from the special forces and  stroke him few times with a stick. The response of the order keepers was a counterattack and a new fountain of tear gas. About five minutes to two o’clock the protest meeting spread out with the slogan: "Go ahead people! Show resistance do not put your head down!"