Greece

Police and protesters clash, as demos continue

Article published on the 2008-12-21 Latest update 2008-12-21 14:42 TU

Riot police outside Athens Polytechnic
(Photo: Reuters)

Protesters threw petrol bombs at police, who responded with teargas, in Athens on Saturay night. There was more violence in other parts of the Greek capital, while demonstrators in the northern city of Thessalonoki disrupted a film festival and pelted the mayor with food.

Hundreds of people gathered in Athens's Exarchia district on Saturday to continue protests over the killing of 15-year-old Alexis

Grigoropoulos by a police officer two weeks ago.

Stones and petrol bombs were thrown at the police, who responded with teargas, and dustbins were set of fire. Molotov cocktails were thrown at police in other parts of the city.

Police also clashed with about 200 anti-racist demonstrators on Saturday.

In the northern city of Thessalonoki, young people occupied a hall being used for a film festival and threw pies at Vassilis Papageorgopoulos.

On Friday masked youths attacked the French cultural institute after a demonstration over a second shooting on Wednesday in which the son of a teachers' union official was injured.

Correspondent Helena Smith says that the protests are an expression of "sheer rage amongst the younger generation of Greeks", which extends from the killing to the conservative government’s social and  economic policies.

"As we speak, the government’s budget for 2009 is being debated in parliament," she told RFI. "There’s anger over that, a feeling that the government is passing laws for the benefit of the rich at the expense of the poor when a lot of younger Greeks are struggling."

In the German city of Hamburg police arrested ten people after clashes during a demonstration of over 1,000 people supporting the Greek protests.