http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/wor...iolence-boys-death-continues-second-week.html
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:36 PM on 15th December 2008
Comments (3) Add to My Stories Protesters in Athens targeted police officers with lasers yesterday as riots sparked by the police killing of a 15-year-old boy continued into a second week.
Although the intensity of protests has tailed off in recent days pockets of violence are still occurring and more rallies have been planned for this week.
Today, around 50 demonstrators hurled eggs at police outside the main Athens court,
Students, unions and leftist groups have called demonstrations this week against the conservative government, which has a one-seat majority.
They have planned demonstrations on Wednesday and Thursday against education and pension reforms, privatisations and tax rises.
Last week's protests fed on growing anger over political scandals, high youth unemployment and low wages, and the impact of a global recession on Greece's e240 billion economy.
'It was expected this would continue for a second week,' said Kiki Toudoulidou, a 37-year-old teacher'.
'If the government was handling the situation in the right way, we wouldn't have reached this point.'
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis's ruling New Democracy party has denounced the riots as the work of a small group of hardcore anarchists, but at their peak early last week thousands of youths ran riot through 10 Greek cities, wrecking hundreds of cars, banks and businesses.
Mr Karamanlis, whose hands-off response to the riots has been criticised by Greek media, travelled to Cyprus today for the funeral of former president Tassos
An opinion poll published yesterday by Kathimerini newspaper put disapproval of the government at 68 per cent, with 60 per cent of those polled saying the riots were a social uprising rather than an outburst by an isolated fringe of violent protesters.
Around 565 shops were damaged in Athens, causing more than e200 million of damage and ruining the Christmas shopping period.
Central Athens was quiet today as many shoppers stayed away.
'There is no business. People are disappointed and angry,' said Dimitra, 61, a shopowner who declined to give her second name.
'The protests will continue. They only needed an excuse.'
The policeman charged with killing Grigoropoulos has been jailed along with a colleague pending trial, while more than 400 protesters have been detained during the unrest, but most of them have been subsequently released without charge.
A parliamentary committee was today due to unveil the findings of its inquiry into a government land swap with an Orthodox monastery which an initial prosecutor's report suggested had cost the taxpayer more than e100 million.
Greece was ranked as the most corrupt country in the euro zone by the Berlin-based Transparency International watchdog in its latest global survey of corruption perceptions.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:36 PM on 15th December 2008
Comments (3) Add to My Stories Protesters in Athens targeted police officers with lasers yesterday as riots sparked by the police killing of a 15-year-old boy continued into a second week.
Although the intensity of protests has tailed off in recent days pockets of violence are still occurring and more rallies have been planned for this week.
Today, around 50 demonstrators hurled eggs at police outside the main Athens court,
Students, unions and leftist groups have called demonstrations this week against the conservative government, which has a one-seat majority.
They have planned demonstrations on Wednesday and Thursday against education and pension reforms, privatisations and tax rises.
Last week's protests fed on growing anger over political scandals, high youth unemployment and low wages, and the impact of a global recession on Greece's e240 billion economy.
'It was expected this would continue for a second week,' said Kiki Toudoulidou, a 37-year-old teacher'.
'If the government was handling the situation in the right way, we wouldn't have reached this point.'
Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis's ruling New Democracy party has denounced the riots as the work of a small group of hardcore anarchists, but at their peak early last week thousands of youths ran riot through 10 Greek cities, wrecking hundreds of cars, banks and businesses.
Mr Karamanlis, whose hands-off response to the riots has been criticised by Greek media, travelled to Cyprus today for the funeral of former president Tassos
An opinion poll published yesterday by Kathimerini newspaper put disapproval of the government at 68 per cent, with 60 per cent of those polled saying the riots were a social uprising rather than an outburst by an isolated fringe of violent protesters.
Around 565 shops were damaged in Athens, causing more than e200 million of damage and ruining the Christmas shopping period.
Central Athens was quiet today as many shoppers stayed away.
'There is no business. People are disappointed and angry,' said Dimitra, 61, a shopowner who declined to give her second name.
'The protests will continue. They only needed an excuse.'
The policeman charged with killing Grigoropoulos has been jailed along with a colleague pending trial, while more than 400 protesters have been detained during the unrest, but most of them have been subsequently released without charge.
A parliamentary committee was today due to unveil the findings of its inquiry into a government land swap with an Orthodox monastery which an initial prosecutor's report suggested had cost the taxpayer more than e100 million.
Greece was ranked as the most corrupt country in the euro zone by the Berlin-based Transparency International watchdog in its latest global survey of corruption perceptions.
