Greek police clashed Tuesday with some of the thousands of striking workers in Athens protesting the latest austerity measures the government is seeking to impose to meet the demands of the country's international creditors.
Some demonstrators charged the steps of parliament and threw rocks at police, who fired tear gas at the protesters and hit some of them with their batons. A handful of protesters burned a German flag and a Nazi flag in protest of the role Germany, Europe's biggest economic power, has played in demanding Greek economic reforms. The planned day-long general strike, the second this year, disrupted transportation services, closed government services and schools and shut shops.
Government officials had planned to meet later in the day to try again to reach agreement on several austerity measures sought by the country's creditors. But the talks were postponed until Wednesday as the country's caretaker prime minister, Lucas Papademos, continued to negotiate with Greece's lenders.
The international lenders have demanded that Greece's three fractious political parties jointly agree to impose new budget cuts. The lenders have said they fear that if there is no uniform consensus, the winner of planned national elections this spring could renege on spending reductions.
One labor leader, Stathis Trahanatzis, said the goal of Greece's lenders — the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — is to make labor cheaper in the country.
Greece said late Monday it would abolish 15,000 government jobs this year, while it is still considering a steep cut in the country's minimum wage and other changes.
Another labor official, Ilias Vrettakos, said the layoff of government workers would have a broad effect on social programs in the country.
The country's main unions and employers have rejected government plans for more wage cuts, saying they have already sustained significant losses with earlier spending cuts and tax increases.
Despite weeks of negotiations, Greece has been unable to complete an agreement with large international financial institutions to cut $130 billion of the country's debt, half the amount it owes them. In addition, the Athens government is seeking to work out details of a new $170-billion bailout, its second in two years, from the EU, the IMF and the continent's central bank.
Greece says it needs the debt relief and new funding to avoid defaulting next month on $19 billion of its financial obligations, something analysts say could trigger a worldwide recession. Greece is now in its fifth straight year of recession with high unemployment.
