Stuck between rioters and tear gas, Athens protesters hold their ground

When thousands of peaceful anti-austerity demonstrators converged on Syntagma Square in central Athens on June 15, they were met not only by riot police but by violent groups of troublemaking youths. Yet our Observer, who was at the centre of events, tells us how the peaceful crowd managed to hold its ground.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied for a day of nationwide protests against painful public spending cuts in the debt-choked country. Greece must pass a new austerity bill worth 28 billion euros if it is to continue receiving rescue loans from the EU, but protesters fear the bill will kill what little is left of the country’s public services and permanently impoverish the working middle class.

Syntagma Square, also known as Constitution Square, soon emerged as the epicentre of the protest. Although the vast majority of the diverse crowd gathered there – which included union workers, political party members, pensioners, students and an array of other citizens who are also upset at the new austerity measures – remained peaceful, several fringe groups of masked youths began burning rubbish bins, hurling stones and Molotov cocktails, and clashing with police, who responded by firing tear gas.

Contributors

Pol Bouratsis

"We were dancing and covering our noses to protect ourselves from the tear gas"

Pol Bouratsis, 25, is a student at Athens University. He is a member of Greece's "Indignants", an opposition movement that describes itself as apolitical and pacifist, similar to the Spanish "Indignados" who have been camping on Madrid’s Puerta del Sol since mid-May. Members of the movement have set up a similar camp on Syntagma Square, and hold general assemblies there every evening.

The day before Wednesday’s protests, we voted in a general assembly that the next morning we would try to block MPs from entering parliament, to stop them from voting on the austerity laws. At 7:00 am, I joined several hundred other protesters to cordon off the streets leading up to Syntagma Square. But police succeeded in opening up one of the roads by installing long rows of police cars on either side of the street, and the lawmakers were escorted into parliament.

Protesters march up Rigillis street in central Athens, to block one of the entrances to the parliament building on June 15. Video posted on YouTube by RealDemocracyGr.

Around noon, most people converged onto Syntagma Square, which is at the exact centre of Athens. There were thousands of us. At first it was an entirely peaceful demonstration, we were chanting slogans at the parliament building, some people played instruments and the crowd clapped along.

The crowd clapping along to percussionists and shouting slogans at the parliament builiding on Syntagma Square on June 15. Video posted on YouTube by PeklampVideos.

Then, in the early afternoon, groups of masked rioters began causing trouble around the square. This is unfortunately very frequent in protests in Greece – those guys are commonly called ‘anarchists’ but it’s not clear exactly who they are. Some people suspect they are actually police disguised as hoodlums to disrupt demonstrations and discredit the protest movement [a video is circulating on the internet reportedly showing police in plainclothes – alongside uniformed police – carrying the long sticks often used by rioters in Greek protests. Athens police say that they had confiscated the sticks from a group of protesters]. I’m not sure what to believe.

Police fire tear gas at rioting protesters near Syntagma Square. Video posted on YouTube by Perseus999.

Members of the Indignant movement used loudspeakers to call on the rioters to leave the square, saying they didn’t want violence. They encouraged the peaceful demonstrators to stay put, so that the rioters wouldn’t take control of the space. But before long, police began firing tear gas at the crowd, which unfortunately is also very frequent in protests in Greece.

At one point, around 2:30 p.m., the air became impossible to breath in and there were rocks flying everywhere, and so most of the crowd was forced to leave the square. We only moved about 300 metres away though, and slowly, little by little, we began moving back towards Syntagma. There was still some fighting going on around the edges, but we were able to reclaim the centre of the square. At that point, someone began playing a lyra [a greek three-stringed bowed instrument] amplified with a microphone, and the crowd started dancing. We were dancing and blocking our noses to protect ourselves from the tear gas.

Protester playing the lyra in teargas-filled Syntagma Square on June 15. Video posted on YouTube by photograph2012.

Finally, in the early evening, the rioters left the square. They must have realised they were outnumbered, that the crowd just wasn’t going to run away or become violent. Eventually, the police also left, but a core of ‘Indignants’ remained and set up camp – like we have for the past 23 days now, and like we will until the situation changes and our living conditions improve.”