MADRID: Thousands of people protested yesterday in European cities against the “troika” of international powers whose financial crisis policies they blame for worsening their economic hardship.
Police fired tear gas at protesters who marched to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, while in Spain and Portugal — two of the countries that have received financial help — more demonstrators filled the streets in angry marches.
“United against the troika. We don’t owe, we won’t pay,” read some of the slogans brandished in Madrid.
The troika of international lenders — the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank — have imposed strict conditions on countries such as Greece and Portugal in exchange for bailout funds.
In Spain, they have overseen a bailout for the country’s banks that has handed €40bn ($52bn) to the sector, angering protestors who say the money should help the poor.
Protesters say the belt-tightening measures applied by governments to meet the troika’s conditions unfairly penalise the poor who suffer most from job cuts and tax hikes.
Several thousand demonstrators waving banners and red, yellow and blue Spanish republican flags marched along a central avenue in Madrid to the din of drums and horns to mass outside the European Commission.
Thousands of people also marched in Barcelona and organisers said similar protests were called in other countries, including Greece.
In Lisbon, protestors waved red cards outside the local offices of the International Monetary Fund, one of the architects of the country’s €78bn bailout two years ago.
“I am not responsible for others’ mistakes,” said one demonstrator in Lisbon, Manuel Oliveira, a security guard. “It is not fair that some keep their privileges while the people have to tighten their belts.”
Anger in Portugal was fanned by a new austerity plan announced in early May, which pushes back the retirement age to 66 from 65. It also cuts some 30,000 civil service jobs and lengthens working hours for civil servants.
AFP
