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Massive protests in Greece over debt crisis
For the first time in the modern history of Greece, anti-government protesters last night pitched tents outside the large standstone building of the Athenian parliament amid growing public anger and unprecedented international concern over the country's dire public finances.
As Greeks attempt to get to grips with an economic crisis that has begun to spill over the borders of their tiny state into the rest of Europe, the sight of tents lined up in Sydagma Square has conjured the mood of the nation: one that is veering, perilously, between bewilderment and despair.
"It is a simple issue of survival," said Anna Tsounara, a protester sitting in a tent lined with sleeping bags and blankets. "I am a divorced mother-of-two. I have never demonstrated like this before but now I want answers. All of us here worked in the public sector on contracts for years and now we are told the state is bankrupt by a government that comes in and says it wants to get rid of us. Just like that. That's not fair."
Tsounara is not alone. For the generations raised on state patrimony, the prospect of such largess running dry because of runaway public debt has come as a rude awakening. That Greece should find itself at the center of a financial maelstrom–amid fears of it defaulting on that debt–with unforeseen consequences for the stability of the Eurozone, is, for many, even more baffling.
Yesterday, as farmers staged a tractor blockade of the country's highways for the third week, tax officers prepared to walk off the job and civil servants prepared for a mass strike, many Greeks were asking: how could it come to this?