Greek police were hunting three foremen on Thursday who were suspected of shooting and wounding more than 20 migrant workers at a strawberry farm.
The supervisors were believed to have opened fire on Wednesday at a crowd of about 200 mostly Bangladeshi immigrants who were demanding wages that had not been paid, police said. The wounded were taken to hospital but none of the injuries was serious.
Anti-foreigner sentiment has been rising in Greece, where one in four workers is unemployed after five years of recession.
We’re glad to hear that all of the wounded are expected to survive, but this is a pretty troubling story given the recent in-roads being made by Greek political organizations like Golden Dawn, Obviously, such organizations don’t represent the majority opinion in Greece, but a noted rise in anti-immigrant violence is always worth keeping an eye on.
Greek soccer player Giorgos Katidis has been banned from his national team for life after giving a Nazi salute while celebrating a goal in the topflight league.
Today in awkward stares in response to awful salutes.
Rage against austerity: Violent clashes erupt in Spain, Greece goes on strike
(Photo: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Getty Images)
Dozens of anti-austerity protesters were arrested after violent clashes in Spain on Tuesday and riot police were on standby in Greece as workers walked off their jobs on Wednesday over the European Union’s policy of imposing austerity on countries mired in debt.
Spanish police told The Associated Press that 38 people were arrested and 64 people injured when officers clashed with protesters demonstrating against cutbacks and tax hikes.
Greek ADEDY labor group member Despoina Spanou makes this sound like a long-term protest: “We call on everyone to take part in the strike and resist the austerity measures that hurt Greek people and the economy. This strike is only the beginning in our fight.”
Fair? Too harsh? Feel like they would’ve gotten this punishment had it not gone viral?
» A coalition to keep austerity measures alive: The vote in Greece ensures that the two parties that are most likely to support austerity measures — New Democracy and the once-powerful PASOK, which will likely form a coalition with New Democracy to ensure a majority — will be able to keep those measures in place. That’s despite the measures’ widespread unpopularity and extremely high unemployment. The two parties together would hold 162 of the country’s 300 seats in parliament. That said, the elections, which took two tries to get right, were seen as a coming-out party for the far-left Syriza, which was only a minor party as recently as 2009. ”Very soon, the Left will be in power,” said Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, in a concession speech. ”We begin the fight again tomorrow.”
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Tensions are extremely high ahead of a vote that could shape the future of a country and a currency. In an election with wide implications, the Greek people are holding parliamentary elections are really a proxy battle on the international austerity packages the country is being pushed to take by other international governments. This is actually the second round — a prior May 6 vote effectively created a stalemate due to the rise of the once-obscure Syriza party, which promises to cancel all austerity deals if elected. Above is a clip that explains exactly what’s at stake — the possible break-up of the Eurozone. And below, a couple of notable things that happened so far today:
Remember Greece’s Golden Dawn political party? You know, the one with the guy who channels Hitler when he speaks, and won 21 seats in recent parliamentary elections? They’re back in the headlines again after spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris assaulted candidates from the rival SYRIZA and Communist parties during a televised debate. (Jump to 1:10 in the video. It’s crazy.) A warrant has been issued for Kasidiaris, who is also scheduled to go on trial Monday for his role in a separate mugging incident. source
Journalists in crisis-hit Greece have gone on strike to protest pay cuts, rising unemployment, and to press for the signing of new collective wage contracts.
The 24-hour strike stopped all TV and radio news broadcasts Monday, while most internet news portals were not updating their content. No newspapers will be published Tuesday.
Could you imagine if the news just … stopped one day? Not just one newspaper — but nearly all of them? Pretty crazy. Best of luck to the journalists who put themselves on the line today.
As fears of a Greek exit from the Euro zone grow, investors across the country withdrew hundreds of millions of Euros from Greek banks on Monday and Tuesday. As thousands of customers closed accounts, or transferred to euro-friendly banks in neighboring countries like Cyrus, analysts began to fear that a “bank run” was on the horizon. Bank runs take place when large groups of customers withdraw their holdings from banking institutions, fearing that the bank will soon be insolvent. As more people withdraw from the bank, the likelihood of insolvency increases, further increasing the number of customers who withdraw. Essentially, closure transforms from a possibility to self-fulfilling prophecy.
» Attempting to calm “bank run” fears: President Karolos Papoulias announced the staggering total during a speech before heads of Greece’s Panhellenic Socialist party. Papoulias admitted that analysts estimated similarly high withdrawals on Tuesday, but assured party members that there was no need to fear a “bank run”. Analysts seem to agree for now, with Mediobanca analyst Alex Tsirigotis telling Reuters, “We have witnessed periods of tension before when the banks experienced large outflows. In my view, the majority of people with these concerns would have done so by now.” (Photo via dullhunk)
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Hat tip to this headline writer.
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Journalists who refused to stand in respect for Golden Dawn party leader Nikolaos Michaloliako were forcibly removed from a recent press conference. Michaloliakos railed against the conservative Samaras party, illegal immigrants, and the mainstream press before heaping praise on the youth he believed responsible for Golden Dawn’s election success. “I want to dedicate this victory to all of our brave lads,” he said, continuing, “who wear the black t-shirts with the ancient letters reading ‘Golden Dawn’.”(Photo via CBC News) source
idroolinmysleep asks: Re: Greek parliament -- you might want to note that Golden Dawn, which has 21 seats according to your chart, is a neo-Nazi party. AFP has a story on it (Google for Golden Dawn Nazi and it'll come right up).
» SFB says: We actually covered this first thing this morning, but it’s certainly worth emphasizing again. They’re on track to get 7 percent of the vote, which is fairly huge considering they got .29 percent in the prior election. Certainly not a positive development. — Ernie @ SFB
So here’s how things are looking for the Greek election. They’re at 82% reporting, but most of the remaining votes are around Athens, Piraeus, and Thessalonika - all strong SYRIZA territory. So we can probably expect a slight shift towards SYRIZA, but no more than a seat or two.
I was going to do a big long post on the possibilities for coalitions and so on, but with this seat distribution there are basically just two possibilities:
- ND and PASOK continue on as a pro-austerity pro-bailout pro-eurozone coalition with the bare minimum number of seats until someone defects and the coalition collapses.
- A fresh round of elections gets called for next month.
There really aren’t any other feasible governing prospects here. Honestly I’m expecting #2, because a “grand coalition” style government that received just under a third of the total vote (and around a quarter of the total vote in the capital) would be perceived as having very little legitimacy and almost certainly would not last.
Jakke knows more about international politics than you do. In this case, Greece.
In an ironic twist of history, ‘democracy’ collapses day after day in its cradle, only to reveal itself as a bloodthirsty cacophony of exploitation, suppression and inhumanity.Al Jazeera English columnist Nikolas Kosmatopoulos • Offering up a particularly harsh take on the state of affairs in Greece, which is holding elections today. His article’s title? “If elections could change things, they’d be illegal.” A tough title for a tough sentiment, in which Kosmatopoulos says that the rising influence of the far right has made targets of the poor and of immigrants in the country. The country, which runs on a multi-party parliamentary system, could see fringe groups, such as the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, get significant shares of the votes on Sunday. What happens to a country so battered by economic austerity that fringe groups gain significant power? Let’s hope we don’t find out.
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