Unrest and Rioting in Greece Reaches a Crescendo

The perfect storm of planned demonstrations, a strike and a riot have led to chaos in Greece, with the unrest reaching a high point yesterday and slowing settling down. The strikes and demonstrations, called by Greece’s largest labor unions – which encompass essentially all public-sector employees and many in the private sector – were on the docket well before riots broke out in Athens. The demonstrations became more rigorous, however, after poor handling of unrelated riots nearby. The strike shut down the country’s schools, public services, airline flights and hospitals and put a tremendous amount of pressure on Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

The riots, unrelated to the strike, occurred during a general protest of the country’s conservative government and involved 10,000 protestors. It was there that a 15-year-old protestor was shot and killed by police officers in what was apparently an accidental shooting. To add fuel to the fire, protestors lobbed Molotov cocktails at the courthouse where the officers were being tried and destroyed a television satellite truck. Alexis Cougias, a lawyer for the policeman involved in the shooting incident noted, "Unfortunately this tragedy is the result…of an act by the policeman to fire into the air. The bullet ricocheted, we have an entry would from above. It proves irrefutably that it was a ricochet." Cougias’ claims have indeed been verified and it appears that there was no intent on the part of the officer in question to fire directly at the deceased.

Despite that, the unrest continues, though more subdued today. Senior Socialist party member Evangelos Venizelos, speaking directly of Prime Minister Karamanlis, said in Parliament yesterday, "This country is not being governed. The government can longer convince anyone. There is no way Mr. Karamanlis can come back from this."