Riot police briefly fired teargas at dozens of demonstrators who tried to break a security cordon in central Athens but the protests were mostly peaceful, in a positive sign for investors and EU policymakers who are closely watching the strike.
Financial markets rallied on Wednesday amid talk that the European Union could bail out Greece, but Brussels has repeatedly said the socialist government must stand firm on wage cuts and tax rises in the face of union opposition.
Some 5,000 members of the ADEDY public sector union marched through rain to parliament waving banners reading “We won’t pay for the crisis.” The 500,000-strong union wants the government to scrap emergency measures including a wage and pension freeze. “These measures are unjust and we will continue our struggle as long as the government does not change its policies,” ADEDY General Secretary Ilias Iliopoulos said, adding that his union would almost certainly join a private sector strike on Feb. 24.
Iliopoulos said 70 percent of members joined the stoppage, but many public employees appeared at ministries and schools. The government was due to release estimates later.
Many ordinary people, however, said it was too soon to dismiss efforts by Prime Minister George Papandreou, a scion of a political dynasty who won power last year, to pull Greece’s finances back from the brink after years of mismanagement. “I’m afraid low earners will be hurt but we must be patient and if the measures don’t work, then people have the right to react massively,” said Maria Pipikari, 29, a shipping employee.
