statism watch

Helena Smith, Mark Tran, The Guardian
December 11, 2008

Anger remains high as policeman claims a shot he fired in self-defence ricocheted to kill Alexander Grigoropoulos

Students occupying an Athens university today clashed with police in a sixth day of unrest, with further demonstrations planned for next week.

The early morning violence during which students threw stones and fire bombs at police gave way to calm as Greeks returned to work after a 24-hour general strike yesterday against the conservative government’s economic policies.

But the beleaguered government faces more street demonstrations in Greece’s worst civil unrest since military rule ended in 1974. School and university students and teachers have called a rally in Athens tomorrow in protest at the police shooting of Alexander Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old, last week.

Public anger at the shooting remains high as the 37-year-old policeman charged with murdering the teenager has not expressed remorse to investigators. The officer, who appeared in court yesterday, said he had fired warning shots in self-defence that ricocheted to kill the youth.

“Pouring petrol on the flames,” the Ethnos newspaper said.

Epaminondas Korkoneas and his partner, who is charged as an accomplice, were sent to jail pending trial by a prosecutor.

Costas Karamanlis, the prime minister, was due to travel to Brussels for an EU summit as the government tried to carry on business as usual.

Karamanlis and the opposition leader, George Papandreou, have appealed for an end to the violence, which hit at least 10 Greek cities and damaged hundreds of millions of euros in property.

The government – clinging on to power by a single seat in the 300-member House – appeared to have weathered the immediate storm, but its hands-off response to the rioting has damaged its already low popularity ratings, analysts said.

“The most likely scenario now is that Karamanlis will call elections in two or three months’ time,” Georges Prevelakis, a professor of geo-politics at Sorbonne University in Paris, told Reuters.

The strike shut down schools, hospitals, flights and public services across Greece yesterday, touching off more riots that left dozens injured and the government severely shaken.

Stone-throwing youths fought pitched battles with riot police outside the Athens parliament as thousands of striking workers, in a separate demonstration, chanted their way through the capital.

Amid screams of “let parliament burn”, protesters hurled petrol bombs, marble slabs and pieces of cement at police who responded by firing rounds of teargas into the air.

Mobs have laid siege to cities nationwide plundering public buildings, stores and cars before setting fire to them.

With the country shut down and Greece’s links to the world cut as a result of the strike, the conservative administration found itself facing a political crisis.

Addressing the nation in a bid to contain the tensions, Karamanlis yesterday pledged financial support for those who had been materially affected and promised to protect individuals from further violence.

But opposition over the free-market conservatives’ fiscal policies and plans to privatise hospitals and schools is unlikely to fade soon. Support for the government, even from the most die-hard conservatives, has dropped, with 70% telling pollsters they have mishandled the crisis.

“These protests are our answer to a government that always closes the doors in our face,” said student Yiannis Yiapitsakis.

Symbolic of the fear and loathing gripping Greece is the makeshift shrine erected on the spot in Athens where Grigoropoulos was shot dead.

In handwritten notes, cards, paintings and poems, Greeks of all ages not only honoured the young “martyr” but gave testimony to a country that appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“You have paid for what people like me who belong to the generation of 50-year-olds, know to be true,” wrote one father in a note placed on top of a pile of roses, candles and plants. “That we are shaking with worry over the future of our children.”

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