Anti-austerity protesters, police clash before Greek bailout vote

Riot police in Athens.
(Image credit: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images)

Before Greek MPs approved an austerity bill required under eurozone bailout terms, thousands of anti-austerity protesters took to the streets of Athens Wednesday, with mostly peaceful marches turning into violent clashes by nightfall.

Protesters in front of the parliament building shouted and carried banners that read "Cancel the bailout" and "No to the policies of the EU, the ECB, and the IMF," Agence France-Presse reports. Petrol bombs were thrown at police officers, who responded by throwing tear gas and sending protesters scrambling from Syntagma Square. Once a fairly common sight in Greece, violent clashes between protesters and police have become rare since the Syriza party came to power in January, AFP reports. Catherine Garcia

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.