Government criticised as clashes between riot police and protesters continue

guardian.co.uk

Greece's main opposition party has accused the government of failing to protect the country as it experiences the worst unrest in decades.

The Socialist opposition leader, George Papandreou, speaking after emergency talks with the prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, said Greeks had lost trust in the government after three days of disorder across the country, triggered when a schoolboy was shot dead by police.

"The country doesn't have a government to protect it," he said. "Citizens are experiencing a multiple crisis: a social crisis, a crisis of values. People have lost trust in the government."

Karamanlis today began emergency talks with top politicians, urging them to unite against the face of civil unrest, as he struggles to reassert his authority.

"We won't show any leniency," he said. "No one has the right to use this tragic incident as an excuse for acts of violence. At this critical time, the political world must unite to condemn those responsible for this disaster and isolate them."

It is unclear what measures the government is considering after a third night of chaos in Greek cities after the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday.

His funeral today could inflame an already volatile situation. With a general strike over economic policy planned for tomorrow, the government's position is looking increasingly precarious.

Hundreds of protesters threw stones and bottles at lines of riot police outside the Greek parliament today as the region entered its fourth day of anti-government clashes.

Karamanlis's party holds a one-seat majority in parliament and was already trailing the opposition Socialists by more than five percentage points before the riots.

The government has denied reports it will declare a state of emergency, but last night the interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, signalled the authorities would take a firmer stance against rioters in the worst disturbances to hit the country since the collapse of military rule in 1974.

Emerging from a three-hour emergency cabinet meeting, he said: "What is happening both for the economy of our country and our democracy is unacceptable. We will not tolerate these events. We will do what we must."

But thousands took to the streets again, burning shops and buildings and even setting alight a Christmas tree in the centre of Athens. One hotel's windows were smashed and guests evacuated. The four-storey Olympic Airways office in central Athens was completely burned, as well as a bank and more than 130 shops.

Rioters threw rocks and petrol bombs at riot police and set up barricades across downtown streets. Smoke rose above the city centre, mingling with clouds of teargas. Broken glass littered the streets.

The disturbances also intensified in the country's second-largest city, Salonika, where masked and hooded youths threw rocks and petrol bombs at riot police, who responded with teargas. Rioting also broke out in Trikala, a city in the country's agricultural heartland.

Demonstrators occupied the Greek consulate in Berlin, and in London five men were arrested after protesters clashed with police outside the Greek embassy.

The riots were triggered by an incident late on Saturday in which Grigoropoulos was shot dead by a policeman, allegedly at point-blank range, after youths were said to have thrown objects at a patrolling police car in the gritty Athenian district of Exarchia.

Earlier yesterday, Karamanlis, accused "extremists" of exploiting the shooting and pledged to take "immediate" action to compensate those whose properties had been destroyed, saying: "The state has a duty to protect society and the citizen."

But the sheer scale of the destruction has put the ruling New Democrats on the defensive. "It is as if the state [machinery], the government, has collapsed," said Ioannis Rougissis, a spokesman for the opposition Pasok party.

Papandreou lashed out at the New Democrats - who are in power with a wafer-thin majority - for being out of touch with reality. "The whole country, every citizen, is exasperated with a government that doesn't understand the real problems of the people," he said. "Everyone is saying enough is enough."

The shooting of the schoolboy on Saturday quickly laid bare the simmering tensions between the police and members of alleged anarchist groups, who retaliated by going on the rampage. But the teenager's death has given vent to a deeper anger that has also been mounting in Greece.

With many struggling to make ends meet, and one in five living below the poverty line, there is growing anger at the tough fiscal policies of a government determined to reach the prescriptive benchmarks set out by Brussels and rein in budget deficits. The disaffection has been exacerbated by allegations of corruption and a series of scandals implicating members of Karamanlis's inner circle.

High school students have rushed to join the protests, throwing stones at police in clashes in front of the Athens parliament yesterday, and on islands and mainland towns nationwide.

"A lot of teenagers identify with Grigoropoulos," said Christos Mazanitis, an Athenian journalist. "There's a whole generation out there who see their parents in debt and feel they have nothing to look forward to in the future. Fear and despair are what these riots are about."